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0808.     HOURS  WITH  THE  GHOSTS,  OR  19th  CENTURY  WITCHCRAFT. 

BY  HENRY  RIDGI<EY  EVANS.      Illustrated  investigations  into  the  realms  of 
Spiritualism  and  Theosophy.     297  pages,  bound  in  cloth.  Price,     *j£  1  «OO 


EDUC. 

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THE  LIBRARY 

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MORRIS  N.  and  CHESLEY  V.  YOUNG 

Collection 


HOURS  WITH  THE  GHOSTS 


LEE'S  LIBRARY  Or 
OCCULT  SCIENCE 


HOURS  WITH  THE  GHOSTS ; 

By        Or  XIX  Century  Witchcraft 

Henry  R.  Evans. 

PRACTICAL  PALMISTRY; 

By        Or  Hand  Reading  Made  Easy 

Comte  C.  de  Saint -Germain. 

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SPIRIT  PHOTOGRAPH. 

[Taken  by  the  Author.] 


Hours  With  the  Ghosts 


OR 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY  WITCHCRAFT 


ILLUSTRATED  INVESTIGATIONS 


INTO  THE 


Phenomena  of  Spiritualism  and  Theosophy 

BY 

HENRY  RIDGELY  EVANS 


The  first  duty  we  owe  to  the  world  Is  Truth— all  the  Truth— nothing  but 
the  Truth.— "Ancient  Wisdom." 


CHICAGO 
LAIRD  &  LEE,  PUBLISHERS 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-seven. 

BY  WILLIAM  H.  LEE, 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


GIFT 


m. 

LIBRARY 


TO  MY  WIFE 


261 


"  It  is  no  proof  of  wisdom  to  refuse  to  examine  certain  phe- 
nomena because  we  think  it  certain  that  they  are  impossible,  as 
if  our  knowledge  of  the  universe  were  already  completed. " 

— Prof.  Lodge. 

"The  most  ardent  Spiritist  should  welcome  a  searching  in- 
quiry into  the  potential  faculties  of  spirits  still  in  the  flesh. 
Until  we  know  more  of  these,  those  other  phenomena  to  which 
he  appeals  must  remain  unintelligible  because  isolated,  and  are 
likely  to  be  obstinately  disbelieved  because  they  are  impos- 
sible to  understand."—^.  W.  H.  Myers:  "Proceedings  of  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research?'  Part  XVIII,  April,  1891. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Author's  Preface 11 

INTRODUCTORY  ARGUMENT 13 

PART  FIRST:    Spiritualism 18 

/.     Divisions  of  the  Subject 18 

//.    Subjective  Phenomena 23 

1.  Telepathy 23 

2.  Table  Tilting.     Muscle  Reading 40 

///.     Physical  Phenomena 46 

1.  Psychography  or  Slate- writing 46 

2.  The  Master  of  the  Mediums:  D.  D.  Home 93 

3.  Rope  Tying  and  Holding  Mediums;  Materiali- 
zations       135 

The  Davenport  Brothers 135 

Annie  Eva  Fay 149 

Charles  Slade 154 

Pierre  L.  O.  A.  Keeler 160 

Eusapia  Paladino 175 

F.  W.  Tabor 182 

4.  Spirit  Photography „ 188 

5.  Thought  Photography 197 

6.  Apparitions  of  the  Dead 201 

IV.     Conclusions 207 

PART  SECOND:  Madame  Blavatsky  and  the  Theoso- 

phists 210 

/.     The  Priestess 213 

II.     Whatis  Theosophy? 237 

///.     Madame  Blavatsky' s  Confession 250 

IV.     The  Writings  of  Madame  Blavatsky 265 

V.     The  Life  and  Death  of  a  Famous  Theosophist. . .  268 

VI.     The  Mantle  of  Madame  Blavatsky 272 

VII.     The  Theosophical  Temple 287 

VIII.     Conclusion 290 

List  of  Authorities. .  .  298 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGS. 

Fig.     1.     Spirit  Photograph,  by  the  author Frontispiece 

Fig.     2.     Portrait  of  Dr.  Henry  Slade 47 

Fig.     3.     The  Holding  of  the  Slate 51 

Fig.     4.     Slate  No.  1 65 

Fig.     5.     SlateNo.2 71 

Fig.     6.     Slate  No.  3 77 

Fig.     7.     Home  at  the  Tuileries 97 

Fig.     8.     Crookes'  Apparatus  No.  1 • 116 

Fig.     9.     Crookes'  Apparatus  No.  1 119 

Fig.  10.     Crookes'  Apparatus  No.  1 120 

Fig.  11.     Crookes'  Apparatus  No.  1 121 

Fig.  12,  13,  14,  15.     Crookes'  Diagrams 124-125 

Fig.  16.     Crookes'  Apparatus  No.  2 . .  126 

Fig.  17.     Crookes'  Apparatus  No.  2 127 

Fig.  18,  19,  20.     Crookes'  Diagrams 128-130 

Fig.  21.     Hammond's  Apparatus 133 

Fig.  22.     The  Davenport's  in  their  Cabinet 139 

Fig.  23.     Trick  Tie  and  in  Cabinet  Work 143 

Fig.  24.     Charles  Slade's  Poster 158-159 

Fig.  25.     Pierre  Keeler's  Cabinet  Seance 162 

Fig.  26.     Pierre  Keeler's  Cabinet  Curtain 163 

Fig.  27.    Portrait  of  Eusapia  Paladino 176 

Fig.  28.     Eusapia  before  the  Scientists 177 

Fig.  29.     Spirit  Photograph,  by  the  author 191 

Fig.  30.     Spirit  Photograph,  by  pretended  medium 195 

Fig.  31.    Sigel's  Original  Picture  of  Fig.  30 199 

Fig.  32.     Portrait  of  Madame  Blavatsky 215 

Fig.  33.     Mahatma  Letter 221 

Fig.  34.    Mahatma  Envelope 225 

Fig.  35.     Portrait  of  Col.  H.  S.  Olcott 233 

Fig.  36.  Oath  of  Secrecy  of  the  Charter  Members  of  the 

Theosophical  Society 235 

Fig.  37.     Portrait  of  W.  Q.  Judge 241 

Fig.  38.     Portrait  of  Mrs.  Annie  Besant 273 

Fig.  39.     Portrait  of  Mrs.  Tingley 285 

Fig.  40.    Autograph  of  Madame  Blavatsky 293 


PREFACE. 

There  are  two  great  schools  of  thought  in  the  world 
— materialistic  and  spiritualistic.  With  one,  MATTER  is 
all  in  all,  the  ultimate  substratum ;  mind  is  merely  the 
result  of  organized  matter  ;  everything  is  translated  into 
terms  of  force,  motion  and  the  like.  With  the  other, 
SPIRIT  or  mind  is  the  ultimate  substance — God ;  matter 
is  the  visible  expression  of  this  invisible  and  eternal  Con- 
sciousness. 

Materialism  is  a  barren,  dreary,  comfortless  belief \ 
and,  in  the  opinion  of  the  author,  is  without  philosophical 
foundation.  This  is  an  age  of  scientific  materialism, 
although  of  late  years  that  materialism  has  been  rather 
on  the  wane  among  thinking  men.  In  an  age  of  such 
ultra  materialism  i  therefore,  it  is  not  strange  that  there 
should  come  a  great  reaction  on  the  part  of  spiritually 
minded  people.  This  reaction  takes  the  form  of  an  in- 
creased vitality  of  dogmatic  religion,  or  else  culminates 
in  the  formation  of  Spiritualistic  or  Theosophic  societies 
for  the  prosecution  of  occult  phenomena^  Spiritualists 
are  now  numbered  by  the  million.  Persons  calling  them- 
selves mediums  present  certain  phenomena,  physical  and 
psychical,  and  call  public  attention  to  them,  as  an  evi- 
dence of  life  beyond  the  grave,  and  the  possibility  of 
spiritual  communication  between  this  world  and  the  next. 


The  author  has  had  sittings  with  many  famous 
mediums  of  this  country  and  Europe,  but  has  seen  little 
to  convince  him  of  the  fact  of  spirit  communication.  The 
slate  tests  and  so-called  materializations  have  invariably 
been  frauds.  Some  experiments  along  the  line  of  auto- 
matic writing  and  psychometry,  however,  have  demon- 
strated  to  the  writer  the  truth  of  telepathy  or  thought- 
transference.  The  theory  of  telepathy  explains  many  of 
the  marvels  ascribed  to  spirit  intervention  in  things 
mundane. 

In  this  work  the  author  has  endeavored  to  give 
an  accurate  account  of  the  lives  and  adventures  of  cele- 
brated mediums  and  occultists,  which  will  prove  of  interest 
to  the  reader.  The  rise  and  growth  of  the  Theosophical 
cult  in  this  country  and  Europe  is  of  historical  interest. 
Theosophy  pretends  to  a  deeper  metaphysics  than  Spirit- 
ualism, and  numbers  its  adherents  by  the  thousands;  it 
is,  therefore,  intensely  interesting  to  study  it  in  its  origin, 
its  founder  and  its  present  leaders. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


HOURS  WITH  THE  GHOSTS. 


INTRODUCTORY  ARGUMENT. 

"If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again?"— this  is  the  ques- 
tion of  the  ages,  the  Sphinx  riddle  that  Humanity  has 
been  trying  to  solve  since  time  began.  The  great  minds 
of  antiquity,  Socrates,  Pythagoras,  Plato  and  Aristotle 
were  firm  in  their  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
The  writings  of  Plato  are  luminous  on  the  subject.  The 
Mysteries  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  as  practiced  in  Egypt,  and 
those  of  Eleusis,  in  Greece,  taught  the  doctrine  of  the 
immortality  of  the  individual  being.  The  Divine 
Master  of  Arcane  knowledge,  Christ,  proclaimed  the 
same.  In  latter  times,we  have  had  such  metaphysical  and 
scientific  thinkers  as  Leibnitz,  Fichte,  Schclling,  Hegel 
and  Schleiermacher  advocating  individual  existence  be- 
yond the  grave. 

13 


I4  INTRODUCTORY  ARGUMENT. 

It  is  a  strange  fact  that  the  more  materialistic  the  age, 
the  deeper  the  interest  in  spiritual  questions.  The  vi- 
tality and  persistence  of  the  belief  in  the  reality  of  the 
spiritual  world  is  evidence  of  that  hunger  for  the  ideal, 
for  God,  of  which  the  Psalmist  speaks — "As  the  heart 
panteth  after  water  brooks  so  panteth  my  soul  after  Thee, 
O  God!"  Through  the  passing  centuries,  we  have  come 
into  a  larger,  nobler  conception  of  the  Universal  Life,  and 
our  relations  to  that  Life,  in  which  we  live,  move,  and  have 
our  being.  Granting  the  existence  of  an  "Eternal  and 
Infinite  Spirit,  the  Intellectual  Organizer  of  the  mathe- 
matical laws  which  the  physical  forces  obey,"  and  con- 
ceiving ourselves  as  individualized  points  of  life  in  the 
Greater  Life,  we  are  constrained  to  believe  that  we  bear 
within  us  the  undying  spark  of  divinity  and  immortality. 
Evolution  points  to  eternal  life  as  the  final  goal  of  self- 
conscious  spirit,  else  this  mighty  earth-travail,  the  long 
ages  of  struggle  to  produce  man  are  utterly  without 
meaning.  Speaking  of  a  future  life,  John  Fiske,  a  lead- 
ing American  exponent  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution, 
says  ("The  Destiny  of  Man"):  "The  doctrine 
of  evolution  does  not  allow  us  to  take  the 
atheistic  view  of  the  position  of  man.  It  is  true 
that  modern  astronomy  shows  us  giant  balls  of  vapor 


INTRODUCTORY  ARGUMENT.  15 

condensing  into  fiery  suns,  cooling  down  into  planets  fit 
for  the  support  of  life,  and  at  last  growing  cold  and  rigid 
in  death,  like  the  moon.  And  there  are  indications  of  a 
time  when  systems  of  dead  planets  shall  fall  in  upon  their 
central  ember  that  was  once  a  sun,  and  the  whole  lifeless 
mass,  thus  regaining  heat,  shall  expand  into  a  nebulous 
cloud  like  that  with  which  we  started,  that  the  work  of 
condensation  and  evolution  may  begin  over  again. 
These  Titanic  events  must  doubtless  seem  to  our  limited 
vision  like  an  endless  and  aimless  series  of  cosmical 
changes.  From  the  first  dawning  of  life  we  see  all 
things  working  together  toward  one  mighty  goal,  the 
evolution  of  the  most  exalted  spiritual  qualities  which 
characterize  Humanity.  The  body  is  cast  aside  and  re- 
turns to  the  dust  of  which  it  was  made.  The  earth,  so 
marvelously  wrought  to  man's  uses,  will  also  be  cast 
aside.  So  small  is  the  value  which  Nature  sets  upon  the 
perishable  forms  of  matter!  The  question,  then,  is  re- 
duced to  this:  Are  man's  highest  spiritual  qualities,  into 
the  production  of  which  all  this  creative  energy  has 
gone,  to  disappear  with  the  rest?  Are  we  to  regard  the 
Creator's  work  as  like  that  of  a  child,  who  builds  houses 
out  of  blocks,  just  for  the  pleasure  of  knocking  them 
down?  For  aught  that  science  can  tell  us,  it  may  be  so, 


jg  INTRODUCTORY  ARGUMENT. 

but  I  can  see  no  good  reason  for  believing  any  such 
thing." 

A  scientific  demonstration  of  immortality  is  declared 
to  be  an  impossibility.  But  why  go  to  science  for  such  a 
demonstration?  The  question  belongs  to  the  domain  of 
philosophy  and  religion.  Science  deals  with  physical 
forces  and  their  relations;  collects  and  inventories  facts. 
Its  mission  is  not  to  establish  a  universal  metaphysic  of 
things ;  that  is  philosophy's  prerogative.  All  occult  think- 
ers declare  that  life  is  from  within,  out.  In  other  words 
life,  or  a  spiritual  principle,  precedes  organization. 
Science  proceeds  to  investigate  the  phenomena  of  the 
universe  in  the  opposite  way  from  without,  in;  and  pro- 
nounces life  to  be  "a  fortuitous  collocation  of  atoms." 
Still,  science  has  been  the  torch-bearer  of  the  ages  and 
has  stripped  the  fungi  of  superstition  from  the  tree  of 
life.  It  has  revealed  to  us  the  great  laws  of  nature, 
though  it  has  not  explained  them.  We  know  that  light, 
heat,  and  electricity  are  modes  of  motion;  more  than 
that  we  know  not.  Science  is  largely  responsible  for  the 
materialistic  philosophy  in  vogue  to-day — a  philosophy 
that  sees  no  reason  in  the  universe.  A  powerful  wave  of 
spiritual  thought  has  set  in,  as  if  to  counteract  the  ultra 


INTRODUCTORY   ARGUMENT.  17 

rationalism  of  the  age.     In  the  vanguard  of  the  new 
order  of  things  are  Spiritualism  and  Theosophy. 

Spiritualism  enters  the  list,  and  declares  that  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  is  a  demonstrable  fact.  It  throws 
down  the  gauntlet  of  defiance  to  skepticism,  saying: 
"Come,  I  will  show  you  that  there  is  an  existence  be- 
yond the  grave.  Death  is  not  a  wall,  but  a  door  through 
which  we  pass  into  eternal  life."  Theosophy,  too,  has 
its  occult  phenomena  to  prove  the  indestructibility  of 
soul-force.  Both  Spiritualism  and  Theosophy  contain 
germs  of  truth,  but  both  are  tinctured  with  superstition. 
I  purpose,  if  possible,  to  sift  the  wheat  from  the  chaff. 
In  investigating  the  phenomena  of  Spiritualism  and 
Theosophy  I  will  use  the  scientific  as  well  as  the  phil- 
osophic method.  Each  will  act,  I  hope,  as  corrective  of 
the  other. 


PART  FIRST. 


SPIRITUALISM. 


I.      DIVISIONS  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

Belief  in  the  evocation  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead  is  as 
old  as  Humanity.  At  one  period  of  the  world's  history 
it  was  called  Thaumaturgy,  at  another  Necromancy 
and  Witchcraft,  in  these  latter  years,  Spiritualism.  It  is 
new  wine  in  old  bottles.  On  March  31,  1847,  at  Hyde- 
ville,  Wayne  County,  New  York,  occurred  the  cele- 
brated "knockings,"  the  beginning  of  modern  Spiritual- 
ism. The  mediums  were  two  little  girls,  Kate  and 
Margaretta  Fox,  whose  fame  spread  over  three  conti- 
nents. It  is  claimed  by  impartial  investigators  that  the 
rappings  produced  in  the  presence  of  the  Fox  sisters 
were  occasioned  by  natural  means.  Voluntary  disjoint- 
ings  of  the  muscles  of  the  knee,  or  to  use  a  medical  term 
"the  repeated  displacement  of  the  tendon  of  the  peroneus 
longus  muscle  in  the  sheath  in  which  it  slides  behind 
the  outer  malleolus"  will  produce  certain  extraordinary 
sounds,  particularly  when  the  knee  is  brought  in  con- 
tact with  a  table  or  chair.  Snapping  the  toes-  in  rapid 
succession  will  cause  similar  noises.  The  above  was  the 

18 


DIVISIONS  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  ig 

explanation  given  of  the  "Hydeville  and  Rochester 
Knockings",  by  Professors  Flint,  Lee  and  Coventry,  of 
Buffalo,  who  subjected  the  Fox  sisters  to  numerous  ex- 
aminations, and  this  explanation  was  confirmed  many 
years  after  (in  1888)  by  the  published  confession  of  Mrs. 
Kane,  nee  Margaretta  Fox.  Spiritualism  became  the 
rage  and  professional  mediums  went  about  giving 
seances  to  large  and  interested  audiences.  This  par- 
ticular creed  is  still  professed  by  a  recognized  semi-re- 
ligious body  in  America  and  in  Europe.  The  American 
mediums  reaped  a  rich  harvest  in  the  Old  World.  The 
pioneer  was  Mrs.  Hayden,  a  Boston  medium,  who  went 
to  England  in  1852,  and  the  table-turning  mania  spread 
like  wild  fire  within  a  few  months. 

Broadly  speaking,  the  phenomena  of  modern  Spiritual- 
ism may  be  divided  into  two  classes:  (1)  Physical,  (2) 
Subjective.  Of  the  first,  the  "Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica",  in  its  brief  but  able  review  of  the  subject,  says: 
"Those  which,  if  correctly  observed  and  due  neither  to 
conscious  or  unconscious  trickery  nor  to  hallucination  on 
the  part  of  the  observers,  exhibit  a  force  hitherto  un- 
known to  science,  acting  in  the  physical  world  other- 
wise than  through  the  brain  or  muscles  of  the  medium/* 
The  earliest  of  these  phenomena  were  the  mysterious 


20  SPIRITUALISM. 

rappings  and  movements  of  furniture  without  apparent 
physical  cause.  Following  these  came  the  ringing  of 
bells,  playing  on  musical  instruments,  strange  lights 
seen  hovering  about  the  seance-room,  materializations  of 
hands,  faces  and  forms,  "direct  writing  and  drawing" 
declared  to  be  done  without  human  intervention,  spirit 
photography,  levitation,  unfastening  of  ropes  and  band- 
ages, elongation  of  the  medium's  body,  handling  fire 
with  impunity,  etc. 

Of  the  second  class,  or  Subjective  Phenomena/we  have 
"table-tilting  and  turning  with  contact;  writing,  draw- 
ing, etc.,  by  means  of  the  medium's  hand;  enhancement, 
trance-speaking,  and  impersonation  by  the  medium  of 
deceased  persons,  seeing  spirits  and  visions  and  hearing 
phantom  voices." 

From  a  general  scientific  point  of  view  there  are  three 
ways  of  accounting  for  the  physical  phenomena  of  spirit- 
ualism :  (1)  Hallucination  on  the  part  of  the  observers ; 
(2)  Conjuring;  (3)  A  force  latent  in  the  human  person- 
ality capable  of  moving  heavy  objects  without  muscular 
contact,  and  of  causing  "Percussive  Sounds"  on  table- 
tops,  and  raps  upon  walls  and  floors. 

Hallucination  has  unquestionably  played  a  part  in  the 
stance-room,  but  here  again  the  statement  of  the  "En- 


DIVISIONS  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  21 

cyclopaedia  Britannica"  is  worthy  of  consideration: 
"Sensory  hallucination  of  several  persons  together  who 
are  not  in  a  hypnotic  state  is  a  rare  phenomenon,  and 
therefore  not  a  probable  explanation."  In  my  opinion, 
conjuring  will  accoun+  for  seven-eighths  oi  the  so- 
called  phenomena  of  professional  mediums.  For  the 
balance  of  one-eighth,  neither  hallucination  nor  legerde- 
main are  satisfactory  explanation.  Hundreds  of  credible 
witnesses  have  borne  testimony  to  the  fact  of  table- 
turning  and  tilting  and  the  movements  of  heavy  objects 
without  muscular  contact.  That  such  a  force  exists  is 
now  beyond  cavil,  call  it  what  you  will,  magnetic,  ner- 
vous, or  psychic.  Count  Agenor  de  Gasparin,  in  1854, 
conducted  a  series  of  elaborate  experiments  in  table- 
turning  and  tilting,  in  the  presence  of  his  family  and  a 
number  of  skeptical  witnesses,  and  was  highly  success- 
ful. The  experiments  were  made  in  the  full  light  of  day. 
The  members  of  the  cytele  joined  hands  and  concen- 
trated their  minds  upon  the  object  to  be  moved.  The 
Count  published  a  work  on  the  subject  "Des  Tables  Tour- 
nantes,"  in  which  he  stated  that  the  movements  of  the 
table  were  due  to  a  mental  or  nervous  force  emanating 
from  the  human  personality.  This  psychic  energy  has 
been  investigated  by  Professor  Crookes  and  Professor 


22  SPIRITUALISM. 

Lodge,  of  London,  and  by  Doctor  Elliott  Coues,  of 
Washington,  D.  C,  who  calls  it  "Telekinesis."  The  ex- 
istence of  this  force  sufficiently  explains  such  phenomena 
of  the  seance-room  as  are  not  attributable  to  hallucina- 
tion and  conjuring,  thus  removing  the  necessity  for  the 
hypothesis  of  spirit  intervention.  In  explanation  of  table- 
turning  by  "contact,"  I  quote  what  J.  N.  Maskelyne 
says  in  "The  Supernatural": 

"Faraday  proved  to  a  demonstration  that  table-turning 
was  simply  the  result  of  an  unconscious  muscular  action 
on  the  part  of  the  sitters.  He  constructed  a  little  appara- 
tus to  be  placed  beneath  the  hands  of  those  pressing 
upon  the  table,  which  had  a  pointer  to  indicate  any 
pressure  to  one  side  or  the  other.  After  a  time,  of  course, 
the  arms  of  the  sitters  become  tired  and  they  uncon- 
sciously press  more  or  less  to  the  right  or  left.  In  Fara- 
day's experiments,  it  always  proved  that  this  pressure 
was  exerted  in  the  direction  in  which  the  table  was  ex- 
pected to  move,  and  the  tell-tale,  pointer  showed  it  at 
once.  There,  then,  we  have  the  explanation :  expectancy 
and  unconscious  muscular  action." 


II.      SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

1.     Telepathy. 

The  subjective  phenomena  of  Spiritualism — trance 
speaking,  automatic  writing,  etc., — have  engaged  the  at- 
tention of  some  of  the  best  scientific  minds  of  Europe 
and  America,  as  studies  of  abnormal  or  supernormal  psy- 
chological conditions. 

If  there  are  any  facts  to  sustain  the  spiritual  hypothe- 
sis, these  facts  exist  in  subjective  manifestations.  The 
following  statement  will  be  conceded  by  any  ^impartial 
investigator:  A  medium,  or  psychic,  in  a  state  of  partial 
or  complete  hypnosis  frequently  gives  information  tran- 
scending his  conscious  knowledge  of  a  subject.  There 
can  be  but  two  hypotheses  for  the  phenomena — (1)  The 
intelligence  exhibited  by  the  medium  is  "ultra-mun- 
dane,"  in  other  words,  is  the  effect  of  spirit  control,  or, 
(2)  it  is  the  result  of  the  conscious  or  unconscious  ex- 
ercise of  psychic  powers  on  the  part  of  the  medium. 

It  is  well  known  that  persons  under  hypnotic  influence 

.> 

exhibit  remarkable  intelligence,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  the  ordinary  consciousness  is  held  in  abeyance.  The 


24  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

extraordinary  results  obtained  by  hypnotizers  point  to 
another  phase  of  consciousness,  which  is  none  other  than 
the  subjective  or  "subliminal"  self.  Mediums  sometimes 
induce  hypnosis  by  self-suggestion,  and  while  in  that 
state,  the  subconscious  mind  is  in  a  highly  receptive  and 
exalted  condition.  Mental  suggestions  or  concepts  pass 
from  the  mind  of  the  sitter  consciously  or  unconsciously 
to  the  mind  of  the  medium,  and  are  given  back  in  the 
form  of  communications  from  the  invisible  world,  os- 
tensibly through  spirit  control.  It  is  not  absolutely  nec- 
essary that  the  medium  be  in  the  hypnotic  condition  to 
obtain  information,  but  the  hypnotic  state  seems  to  be 
productive  of  the  best  results.  The  medium  is  usually 
honest  in  his  belief  in  the  reality  of  such  ultra-mundane 
control,  but  he  is  ignorant  of  the  true  psychology  of  the 
case — thought  transference. 

The  English  Society  for  Psychical  Research  and  its 
American  branch  have  of  late  years  popularized  "tele- 
pathy", or  thought  transference.  A  series  of  elaborate 
investigations  were  made  by  Messrs.  Edmund  Gurney, 
F.  W.  H.  Myers,  and  Frank  Podmore,  accounts  of 
which  are  contained  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Society. 
Among  the  European  investigators  may  be  mentioned 
Messrs.  Janet  and  Gibert,  Richet,  Gibotteau,  arid 


TELEPATHY.  25 

Schrenck-Notzing.  Podmore  has  lately  summarized  the 
results  of  these  studies  in  an  interesting  volume,  "Ap- 
paritions and  Thought-transference,  an  Examination  of 
the  Evidence  for  Telepathy."  Thought  Transference  or 
Telepathy  (from  tele — at  a  distance,  and  pathos — feeling) 
he  describes  as  "a  communication  between  mind  and 
mind  other  than  through  the  known  channels  of  the 
senses."  A  mass  of  evidence  is  adduced  to  prove  the  pos- 
sibility of  this  communication.  In  summing  up  his  book 
he  says:  "The  experimental  evidence  has  shown  that  a 
simple  sensation  or  idea  may  be  transferred  from  one 
mind  to  another,  and  that  this  transference  may  take 
place  alike  in  the  normal  state  and  in  the  hypnotic  trance. 
*  *  The  personal  influence  of  the  operator  in 
hypnotism  may  perhaps  be  regarded  as  a  proof  presump- 
tive of  telepathy."  The  experiments  show  that  mental 
concepts  or  ideas  may  be  transferred  to  a  distance. 

Podmore  advances  the  following  theory  in  explana- 
tion of  the  phenomena  of  telepathy : 

"If  we  leave  fluids  and  radiant  nerve-energy  on  one 
side,  we  find  practically  only  one  mode  suggested  for 
the  telepathic  transference — viz.,  that  the  physical 
changes  which  are  the  accompaniments  of  thought  or 
sensation  in  the  agent  are  transmitted  from  the  brain  as 


26  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

undulations  in  the  intervening  medium,  and  thus  excite 
corresponding  changes  in  some  other  brain,  without  any 
other  portion  of  the  organism  being  necessarily  impli- 
cated in  the  transmission.  This  hypothesis  has  found  its 
most  philosophical  champion  in  Dr.  Ochorowicz,  who 
has  devoted  several  chapters  of  his  book  "De  la  Sugges- 
tion mentale,"  to  the  discussion  of  the  various  theories  on 
the  subject.  He  begins  by  recalling  the  reciprocal  con- 
vertibility of  all  physical  forces  with  which  we  are  ac- 
quainted, and  especially  draws  attention  to  what  he  calls 
the  law  of  reversibility,  a  law  which  he  illustrates  by  a 
description  of  the  photophone.  The  photophone  is  an 
instrument  in  which  a  mirror  is  made  to  vibrate  to  the 
human  voice.  The  mirror  reflects  a  ray  of  light,  which, 
vibrating  in  its  turn,  falls  upon  a  plate  of  selenium,  modi- 
fying its  electric  conductivity.  The  intermittent  current 
so  produced  is  transmitted  through  a  telephone,  and  the 
original  articulate  sound  is  reproduced.  Now  in  hypno- 
tized subjects — and  M.  Ochorowicz  does  not  in  this  con- 
nection treat  of  thought-transference  between  persons  in 
the  normal  state — the  equilibrium  of  the  nervous  system, 
he  sees  reason  to  believe,  is  profoundly  affected.  The 
nerve-energy  liberated  in  this  state,  he  points  out,  'cannot 
pass  beyond'  the  subject's  brain  ' without  being  trans- 


TELEPATHY.  27 

formed.  Nevertheless,  like  any  other  force,  it  cannot 
remain  isolated;  like  any  other  force  it  escapes,  but  in 
disguise.  Orthodox  science  allows  it  only  one  way  out, 
the  motor  nerves.  These  are  the  holes  in  the  dark  lantern 
through  which  the  rays  of  light  escape.  *  *  * 
Thought  remains  in  the  brain,  just  as  the  chemical 
energy  of  the  galvanic  battery  remains  in  the  cells,  but 
each  is  represented  outside  by  its  correlative  energy, 
which  in  the  case  of  the  battery  is  called  the  electric  cur- 
rent, but  for  which  in  the  other  we  have  as  yet  no  name. 
In  any  case  there  is  some  correlative  energy — for  the 
currents  of  the  motor  nerves  do  not  and  cannot  constitute 
the  only  dynamic  'equivalent  of  cerebral  energy — to  rep- 
resent all  the  complex  movements  of  the  cerebral  mech- 
anism/ )! 

The  above  hypothesis  -nay,  or  may  not,  afford  a  clue 
to  the  mysterious  phenomena  of  telepathy,  but  it  will 
doubtless  satisfy  to  some  extent  those  thinkers  who  de- 
mand physical  explanations  of  the  known  and  unknown 
laws  of  the  universe.  The  president  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  (1894,)  A.  J.  Balfour,  in  an  address 
on  the  relation  of  the  work  of  the  Society  to  the  general 
course  of  modem  scientific  investigation,  is  more  cautious 
than  the  writers  already  quoted.  He  says: 


28  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

"Is  this  telepathic  action  an  ordinary  case  of  action 

from  a  center  of  disturbance?  Is  it  equally  diffused  in  all 
directions?  Is  it  like  the  light  of  a  candle  or  the  light 
of  the  sun  which  radiates  equally  into  space  in  every  di- 
rection at  the  same  time?  If  it  is,  it  must  obey  the  law — 
at  least,  we  should  expect  it  to  obey  the  law — of  all  other 
forces  which  so  act  through  a  non-absorbing  medium, 
and  its  effects  must  diminish  inversely  as  the  square  of 
the  distance.  It  must,  so  to  speak,  get  beaten  out  thinner 
and  thinner  the  further  it  gets  removed  from  its  original 
source.  But  is  this  so?  Is  it  even  credible  that  the 
mere  thoughts,  or,  if  you  please,  the  neural  changes  corre- 
sponding to  these  thoughts,  of  any  individual  could  have 
in  them  the  energy  to  produce  sensible  effects  equally  in 
all  directions,  for  distances  which  do  not,  as  far  as  our 
investigations  go,  appear  to  have  any  necessary  limit? 
It  is,  I  think,  incredible;  and  in  any  case  there  is  no  evi- 
dence whatever  that  this  equal  diffusion  actually  takes 
place.  The  will  power,  whenever  will  is  used,  or  the 
thoughts,  in  cases  where  will  is  not  used,  have  an  effect, 
as  a  rule,  only  upon  one  or  two  individuals  at  most. 
There  is  no  appearance  of  general  diffusion.  There  is  no 
indication  of  any  disturbance  equal  at  equal  distances  from 
its  origin  and  radiating  from  it  alike  in  every  direction. 


TELEPATHY.  29 

"But  if  we  are  to  reject  this  idea,  which  is  the  first 
which  ordinary  analogies  would  suggest,  what  are  we 
to  put  in  its  place?  Are  we  to  suppose  that  there  is  some 
means  by  which  telepathic  energy  can  be  directed 
through  space  from  the  agent  to  the  patient,  from  the 
man  who  influences  to  the  man  who  is  influenced?  If 
we  are  to  believe  this,  as  apparently  we  must,  we  are  face 
to  face  not  only  with  a  fact  extarordinary  in  itself,  but 
with  a  kind  of  fact  which  does  not  fit  in  with  anything 
we  know  at  present  in  the  region  either  of  physics  or  of 
physiology.  It  is  true,  ne  deubt,  that  we  do  know  plenty 
of  cases  where  energy  is  directed  along  a  given  line,  like 
water  in  a  pipe,  or  like  electrical  energy  along  the  course 
of  a  wire.  But  then  in  such  cases  there  is  always  some 
material  guide  existing  between  the  two  termini,  between 
the  place  from  which  the  energy  comes  and  the  place 
to  which  the  energy  goes.  Is  there  any  such  material 
guide  in  the  case  of  telepathy?  It  seems  absolutely  im- 
possible. There  is  no  sign  of  it.  We  can  not  even  form 
to  ourselves  any  notion  of  its  character,  and  yet,  if  we 
are  to  take  what  appears  to  be  the  obvious  lesson  of  the 
observed  facts,  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  in 
some  shape  or  other  it  exists." 

Telepathy  once  conceded,  we  have  a  satisfactory  ex- 


30  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

planation  of  that  class  of  cases  in  modern  Spiritualism  on 
the  subjective  side  of  the  question.  There  is  no  need  of 
the  hypothesis  of  "disembodied  spirits". 

Some  years  ago,  I  instituted  a  series  of  experiments 
with  a  number  of  celebrated  spirit  mediums  in  the  line 
of  thought  transference,  and  was  eminently  successful 
in  obtaining  satisfactory  results,  especially  with  Miss 
Maggie  Gaule,  of  Baltimore,  one  of  the  most  famous  of 
the  latter  day  psychics. 

Case  A. 

About  three  years  prior  to  my  sitting1  with  Miss  Gaule, 
a  relative  by  marriage  died  of  cancer  of  the  throat  at 
the  Garfield  Hospital,  Washington,  D.  C.  He  was  a 
retired  army  officer,  with  the  brevet  of  General,  and  lived 
part  of  the  time  at  Chambersburg,  Penn.,  and  the  rest 
of  the  time  at  the  National  Capital.  He  led  a  very  quiet 
and  unassuming  life,  and  outside  of  army  circles  knew 
but  few  people.  He  was  a  magnificent  specimen  of  physi- 
cal manhood,  six  feet  tall,  with  splendid  chest  and  arms. 
His  hair  and  beard  were  of  a  reddish  color.  His  usual 
street  dress  was  a  sort  of  compromise  with  an  army  un- 
dress uniform,  military  cut  frock-coat,  frogged  and 
braided  top-coat,  and  a  Sherman  hat.  Without  these  ac- 
cessories, anyone  would  have  recognized  the  military 


TELEPATHY.  31 

man  in  his  walk  and  bearing.  He  and  his  wife  thought 
a  great  deal  of  my  mother,  and  frequently  stopped  me  on 
the  street  to  inquire,  "How  is  Mary?"  I  went  to  Miss 
Gaule's  house  with  the  thought  of  General  M —  fixed  in 
my  mind  and  the  circumstances  surrounding  his  decease. 
The  medium  greeted  me  in  a  cordial  manner.  I  sat  at 
one  end  of  the  room  in  the  shadow,  and  she  near  the 
window  in  a  large  armchair.  "You  wish  for  messages 
from  the  dead,"  she  remarked  abruptly.  "One  moment, 
let  me  think."  She  sank  back  in  the  chair,  closed  her 
eyes,  and  remained  in  deep  thought  for  a  minute  or  so, 
occasionally  passing  her  hand  across  her  forehead.  "I 
see,"  she  said,  "standing  behind  you,  a  tall,  large  man 
with  reddish  hair  and  beard.  He  is  garbed  in  the  uni- 
form of  an  officer — I  do  not  know  whether  of  the  army 
or  navy.  He  points  to  his  throat.  Says  he  died  of  a 
throat  trouble.  He  looks  at  you  and  calls  "Mary, — how 
is  Mary?"  "What  is  his  name?"  I  inquired,  fixing  my 
mind  on  the  words  David  M — .  "I  will  ask",  replied 
the  medium.  There  was  a  long  pause.  "He  speaks  so 
faintly  I  can  scarcely  hear  him.  The  first  letter  begins 
with  D,  and  then  comes  a —  I  can't  get  it.  I  can't  hear 
it."  With  that  she  opened  her  eyes. 
The  surprising  feature  about  the  above  case  was  the 


32  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

alleged  spirit  communication,  ''Mary — how  is  Mary?" 
I  did  not  have  this  in  my  mind  at  the  time ;  in  fact  I  had 
completely  forgotten  this  form  of  salutation  on  the  part 
of  Gen.  M — ,  when  we  had  met  in  the  old  days.  It  is 
just  this  sort  of  thing  that  makes  spirit-converts. 

However,  the  cases  of  unconscious  telepathy  cited  in 
the  "Reports  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,"  are 
sufficient,  I  think,  to  prove  the  existence  of  this  phase 
erf  the  phenomena. 

T.  J.  Hudson,  in  his  work  entitled  "A  scientific  dem- 
onstration of  the  future  life",  says:  *  *  "When  a 
psychic  transmits  a  message  to  his  client  containing  in- 
formation which  is  in  his  (the  psychic's)  possession,  it 
can  not  reasonably  be  attributed  to  the  agency  of  dis- 
embodied spirits.  *  *  When  the  message  con- 
tains facts  known  to  some  one  in  his  immediate  presence 
and  with  whom  he  is  en  rapport,  the  agency  of  spirits  of 
the  dead  cannot  be  presumed.  Every  investigator  will 
doubtless  admit  that  sub-conscious  memory  may  enter  as 
a  factor  in  the  case,  and  that  the  sub-conscious  intelli- 
gence— or,  to  use  the  favorite  terminology  employed  by 
Mr.  Myers  to  designate  the  subjective  mind,  the 
'sublimal  consciousness' — of  the  psychic  or  that  of  his 


TELEPATHY.  33 

client  may  retain  and  use  facts  which  the  conscious,  or 
objective  mind  may  have  entirely  forgotten." 

But  suppose  the  medium  relates  facts  that  were  never 
in  the  possession  of  the  sitter,  what  are  we  to  say  then? 
Considerable  controversy  has  been  waged  over  this  ques- 
tion, and  the  hypothesis  of  telepathy  is  scouted.  Minot 
J.  Savage  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  such  cases 
stretch  the  telepathic  theory  too  far;  there  can  be  but  one 
plausible  explanation — a  communication  from  a  disem- 
bodied spirit,  operating  through  the  mind  of  the  medium. 
For  the  sake  of  lucidity,  let  us  take  an  example :  A  has 
a  relative  B  who  dies  in  a  foreign  land  under  peculiar 
circumstances,  unknown  to  A.  A  attendr  a  s  ance  of  a 
psychic,  C,  and  the  latter  relates  the  circumstances  of  B's 
death.  A  afterwards  investigates  the  statements  of  the 
medium,  and  finds  them  correct.  Can  telepathy  account 
for  C's  knowledge?  I  think  it  can.  The  telepathic  com- 
munication was  recorded  in  A's  sub-conscious  mind,  he 
being  en  rapport  with  B.  A  unconsciously  yields  the 
points  recorded  in  his  sub-conscious  mind  to  the  psychic, 
C,  who  by  reason  of  his  peculiar  powers  raises  them  to 
the  level  of  conscious  thought,  and  gives  them  back  in 
the  form  of  a  message  from  the  dead. 


34  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

Case  B. 

On  another  occasion,  I  went  with  my  friend  Mr.  S. 
C,  of  Virginia,  to  visit  Miss  Gaule.  Mr.  S.  C.  had  a 
young  son  who  had  recently  passed  the  examination  for 
admission  to  the  U.  S.  Naval  Academy,  and  the  boy  had 
accompanied  his  father  to  Baltimore  to  interview  the 
military  tailors  on  the  subject  of  uniforms,  etc.  Miss 
Gaule  in  her  semi-trance  state  made  the  following  state- 
ment: "I  see  a  young  man  busy  with  books  and  papers. 
He  has  successfully  passed  an  examination,  and  says 
something  about  a  uniform.  Perhaps  he  is  going  to  a 
military  college." 

Here  again  we  have  excellent  evidence  of  the  proof 
of  telepathy. 

The  spelling  of  names  is  one  of  the  surprising  things 
in  these  experiments.  On  one  occasion  my  wife  had  a 
sitting  with  Miss  Gaule,  and  the  psychic  correctly 
spelled  out  the  names  of  Mrs.  Evans'  brothers — John, 
Robert,  and  Dudley,  the  latter  a  family  name  and  rather 
unusual,  and  described  the  family  as  living  in  the  West. 

The  following  example  of  Telepathy  occurred  between 
the  writer  and  a  younger  brother. 
Case  C. 

In  the  fall  of  1890,  I  was  travelling  from  Washington 
to  Baltimore,  by  the  B.  &  P.  R.  R.  As  the  train  ap- 


TELEPATHY.  35 

preached  Jackson  Grove,  a  campmeeting  ground,  de- 
serted at  that  time  of  the  year,  the  engine  whistle  blew 
vigorously  and  the  bell  was  rung  continuously,  which 
was  something  unusual,  as  the  cars  ordinarily  did  not 
stop  at  this  isolated  station,  but  whirled  past.  Then  the 
engine  slowed  down  and  the  train  came  to  a  standstill. 

"What  is  the  matter?"  exclaimed  the  passengers. 

"My  God,  look  there!"  shouted  an  excited  passenger, 
leaning  out  of  the  coach  window,  and  pointing  to  the 
dilapidated  platform  of  the  station.  I  looked  out  and 
beheld  a  decapitated  human  head,  standing  almost  up- 
right in  a  pool  of  blood.  With  the  other  male  passen- 
gers I  rushed  out  of  the  car.  The  head  was  that  of  an 
old  man  with  very  white  hair  and  beard.  We  found 
the  body  down  an  embankment  at  some  little  distance 
from  the  place  of  the  accident.  The  deceased  was  rec- 
ognized as  the  owner  of  the  Grove,  a  farmer  living  in  the 
vicinity.  According  to  the  statement  of  the  engineer, 
the  old  man  was  walking  on  the  track;  the  warning 
signals  were  given,  but  proved  of  no  avail.  Being  some- 
what deaf,  he  did  not  realize  his  danger.  He  attempted 
to  step  off  the  track,  but  the  brass  railing  that  runs  along 
the  side  of  the  locomotive  decapitated  him  like  the  knife 
of  a  guillotine. 


36  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

When  I  reached  Baltimore  about  7  o'clock,  P.  M., 
I  hurried  down  to  the  office  of  the  "Baltimore  News" 
and  wrote  out  an  account  of  the  tragic  affair.  My  work 
at  the  office  kept  me  until  a  late  hour  of  the  night,  and 
I  went  home  to  bed  at  about  1  o'clock,  A.  M.  My 
brother,  who  slept  in  an  adjoining  room,  had  retired  to 
bed  and  the  door  between  our  apartments  was  closed. 
The  next  morning,  Sunday,  I  rose  at  9  o'clock,  and  went 
down  to  breakfast.  The  family  had  assembled,  and  I 
was  just  in  time  to  hear  my  brother  relate  the  following: 
"I  had  a  most  peculiar  dream  last  night.  I  thought  I 
was  on  my  way  to  Mt.  Washington  (he  was  in  the 
habit  of  making  frequent  visits  to  this  suburb  of  Balti- 
more on  the  Northern  Central  R.  R.)  We  ran  down 
an  old  man  and  decapitated  him.  I  was  looking  out  of 
the  window  and  saw  the  head  standing  in  a  pool  of 
blood.  The- hair  and  beard  were  snow  white.  We  found 
the  body  not  far  off,  and  it  proved  to  be  a  farmer  re- 
siding in  the  neighborhood  of  Mt.  Washington." 

"You  will  find  the  counterpart  of  that  dream  in  the 
morning  paper",  I  remarked  seriously.  "I  reported  the 
accident."  My  father  called  for  the  paper,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  hunt  its  columns  for  the  item,  saying,  "You 
undoubtedly  transferred  the  impression  to  your  brother." 


TELEPATHY.  37 

Case  D. 

This  is  another  striking  evidence  of  telepathic  com- 
munication, in  which  I  was  one  of  the  agents.  L —  was 
a  reporter  on  a  Baltimore  paper,  and  his  apartments  were 
the  rendezvous  of  a  coterie  of  Bohemian  aotors,  journal- 
ists, and  litterati,  among  whom  was  X — ,  a  student  at 
the  Johns-Hopkins  University,  and  a  poet  of  rare  ex- 
cellence. Poets  have  a  proverbial  reputation  for  being 
eccentric  in  personal  appearance;  in  X  this  eccentricity 
took  the  form  of  an  undipped  beard  that  stood  out  in  all 
directions,  giving  him  a  savage,  anarchistic  look.  He 
vowed  never  under  any  circumstances  to  shave  or  cut 
this  hirsute  appendage. 

L —  came  to  me  one  day,  and  laughingly  remarked: 
"I  am  being  tortured  by  a  mental  obsession.  X's  beard 
annoys  me;  haunts  my  waking  and  sleeping  hours.  I 
must  do  something  about  it.  Listen!  He  is  coming 
down  to  my  rooms,  Saturday  evening,  to  do  some  liter- 
ary work,  and  spend  the  night  with  me.  We  shall  have 
supper  together,  and  I  want  you  to  be  present.  Now  I 
propose  that  we  drug  his  coffee  with  some  harmless 
soporific,  and  when  he  is  sound  asleep,  tie  him,  and 
shave  off  his  beard.  Will  you  help  me?  I  can  provide 
you  with  a  lounge  to  sleep  on,  but  you  must  promise 
not  to  go  to  sleep  until  after  the  tragedy." 


38  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

I  agreed  to  assist  him  in  his  practical  joke,  and  we 
parted,  solemnly  vowing  that  our  project  should  be  kept 

secret. 

This  was  on  Tuesday,  and  no  communication  was  had 

with  X,  until  Saturday  morning,  when  L —  and  I  met 
him  on  Charles  street. 

"Don't  forget  to-night,"  exclaimed  L —  "I  have  in- 
vited E  to  join  us  in  our  Epicurean  feast." 

"I  will  be  there,"  said  X.  "By  the  way,  let  me  relate 
a  curious  dream  I  had  last  night.  I  dreamt  I  came  down 
to  your  rooms,  and  had  supper.  E —  was  present.  You 
fellows  gave  me  something  to  drink  which  contained  a 
drug,  and  I  fell  asleep  on  the  bed.  After  that  you  tied 
my  hands,  and  shaved  off  my  beard.  When  I  awoke  I 
was  terribly  mad.  I  burst  the  cords  that  fastened  my 
wrists  together,  and  springing  to  my  feet,  cut  L —  se- 
verely with  the  razor." 

"That  settles  the  matter",  said  L— ,  "his  beard  is  safe 
from  me".  When  we  told  X  of  our  conspiracy  to  re- 
lieve him  of  his  poetic  hirsute  appendage,  he  evinced  the 
greatest  astonishment.  As  will  be  seen,  every  particular 
of  the  practical  joke  had  been  transferred  to  his  mind, 
the  drugging  of  the  coffee,  the  tying,  and  the  shaving. 

Telepathy  is  a  logical  explanation  of  many  of  the 


TELEPATHY.  39 

ghostly  visitations  of  which  the  Society  for  Psychical  Re- 
search has  collected  such  a  mass  of  data.  For  example: 
A  dies,  let  us  say  in  India  and  B,a  near  relative  or  friend, 
residing  in  England,  sees  a  vision  of  A  in  a  dream  or  in 
the  waking  state.  A  clasps  his  hands,  and  seems  to  utter 
the  words,  "I  am  dying".  When  the  news  comes  of  A's 
death,  the  time  of  the  occurrence  coincides  with  the  see- 
ing of  the  vision.  The  spiritualist's  theory  is  that  the 
ghost  of  A  was  an  actual  entity.  One  of  the  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  such  an  hypothesis  is  the  clothing  of  the 
deceased — can  that,  too,  be  disembodied ?  Thought  trans- 
ference (conscious  or  unconscious),  I  think,  is  the  only 
rational  explanation  of  such  phantasms.  The  vision  seen 
by  the  percipient  is  not  an  objective  but  a  subjective 
thing — a  hallucination  produced  by  the  unknown  force 
called  telepathy.  The  vision  need  not  coincide  exactly 
with  the  date  of  the  death  of  the  transmitter  but  may 
make  its  appearance  years  afterwards,  remaining  latent 
in  the  subjective  mind  of  the  percipient.  It  may,  as  is 
frequently  the  case,  be  revealed  by  a  medium  in  a  seance. 
Many  thoughtful  writers  combat  the  .telepathic  explana- 
tion of  phantasms  of  the  dead,  claiming  that  when  such 
are  seen  long  after  the  death  of  persons,  they 
t  afford  indubitable  evidence  of  the  reality  of  spirit  visita- 


40  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

tion.  The  reader  is  referred  to  the  proceedings  of  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research  for  a  detailed  discussion 
of  the  pros  and  cons  of  this  most  interesting  subject. 

Many  of  the  so-called  materializations  of  the  seance- 
room  may  be  accounted  for  by  hallucinations  superin- 
duced by  telepathic  suggestions  from  the  mind  of  the 
medium  or  sitters.  But,  in  my  opinion,  the  greater  num- 
ber of  these  manifestations  of  spirit  power  are  the  result 
of  trickery  pure  and  simple — theatrical  beards  and  wigs, 
muslin  and  gossamer  robes,  etc.,  being  the  paraphernalia 
used  to  impersonate  the  shades  of  the  departed,  the 
imaginations  of  the  sitters  doing  the  rest. 

2.    Table-Tilting— Muscle    Beading. 

In  regard  to  Table-Tilting  with  contact,  I  have  given 
Faraday's  conclusions  on  the  subject, — unconscious 
muscular  action  on  the  part  of  the  sitter  or  sitters.  In 
the  case  of  Automatic  Writing  (particularly  with  the 
planchette),  unconscious  muscular  action  is  the  proper 
explanation  for  the  movements  of  the  apparatus.  "Pro- 
fessor Augusto  Tamburini,  of  Italy,  author  of  'Spiritismo 
e  Telepatia',  a  cautious  investigator  of  psychical  prob- 
lems," says  a  reviewer  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  (Volume  IX,  p.  220),  "accepts 
the  verdict  of  all  competent  observers  that  imposture  is 


TABLE-TILTING.  41 

inadmissible  as  a  general  explanation,  and  endorses  the 
view  that  the  muscular  action  which  causes  the  move- 
ments of  the  table  or  the  pencil  is  produced  by  the  sublim- 
inal consciousness.  He.  explains  the  definite  and  vary- 
ing characters  of  the  supposed  authors  of  the  messages 
as  the  result  of  self-suggestion.  As  by  hypnotic  or  post- 
hypnotic  suggestion  a  subject  may  be  made  to  think  he 
is  Napoleon  or  a  chimney  sweep,  so,  by  self-suggestion, 
the  subliminal  consciousness  may  be  made  to  think  that 
he  is  X  and  Y,  and  to  tilt  or  wrap  messages  in  the 
character  of  X  and  Y." 

Professor  Tamburini's  explanation  fails  to  account  for 
the  innumerable  well  authenticated  cases  where  facts  are 
obtained  not  within  the  conscious  knowledge  of  the 
planchette  writer  or  table-tilter.  If  telepathy  does  not 
enter  into  these  cases,  what  does? 

There  are  many  exhibitions,  of  thought  transference  by 
public  psychics,  that  are  thought  transference  in  name 
only.  One  must  be  on  one's  guard  against  these  pre- 
tenders to  occult  powers.  I  refer  to  men  like  our  late 
compatriot,  Washington  Irving  Bishop — "muscle- 
reader"  par  excellence  whose  fame  extended  throughout 
the  civilized  world. 

Muscle-Reading  is  performed  in  the  following  man- 


42  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

ner:  Let  us  take,  for  example,  the  reading  of  the  figures 
on  a  bank-note.  The  subject  gazes  intently  at  the  fig- 
ures on  a  note,  and  fixes  them  in  his  mind.  The  muscle- 
reader,  blindfolded  or  not,  takes  a  crayon  in  his  right 
hand,  and  lightly  clasps  the  hand  or  wrist  of  the  subject 
with  his  left.  He  then  writes  on  a  blackboard  the  correct 
figures  on  the  note.  This  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  feats 
in  the  repertoire  of  the  muscle-reader,  and  was  excelled 
in  by  Bishop  and  Stuart  Cumberland.  Charles  Gatchell, 
an  authority  on  the  subject,  says  that  the  above  named 
men  were  the  only  muscle-readers  who  have  ever  ac- 
complished the  feat.  Geometrical  designs  can  also  be 
reproduced  on  a  blackboard.  The  finding  of  objects 
hidden  in  an  adjoining  room,  or  upon  the  person  of  a 
spectator  in  a  public  hall,  or  at  a  distance,  are  also  ac- 
complished by  skillful  muscle  readers,  either  by  clasping 
the  hand  of  the  subject,  or  one  end  of  a  short  wire  held 
by  him.  Says  Gatchell,  in  the  "Forum"  for  April,  1891 : 
"Success  in  muscle-reading  depends  upon  the  powers  of 
the  principal  and  upon  the  susceptibility  of  the  subject. 
The  latter  must  be  capable  of  mental  concentration;  he 
must  exert  no  muscular  self-control;  he  must  obey  his 
every  impulse.  Under  these  conditions,  the  phenomena 
are  in  accordance  with  known  laws  of  physiology.  On 


MUSCLE-READING.  43 

the  part  of  the  principal,  muscle-reading  consists  of  an 
acute  perception  of  the  slight  action  of  another's  muscles. 
On  the  part  of  the  subject,  it  involves  a  nervous  im- 
pulse, accompanied  by  muscular  action.  The  mind  of 
the  subject  is  in  a  state  of  tension  or  expectancy.  A 
sudden  release  from  this  state  excites,  momentarily,  an 
increased  activity  in  the  cells  of  the  cerebral  cortex. 
Since  the  ideational  centres,  as  is  usually  held,  correspond 
to  the  motor  centres,  the  nervous  action  causes  a  motor 
impulse  to  be  transmitted  to  the  muscles^  *  *  In 
making  his  way  to  the  location  of  a  hidden  object,  the 
subject  usually  does  not  lead  the  muscle-reader,  but  the 
muscle-reader  leads  the  subject.  That  is  to  say,  so  long 
as  the  muscle-reader  moves  in  the  right  direction,  the 
subject  gives  no  indication,  but  passively  moves  with 
him.  The  muscle-reader  perceives  nothing  unusual. 
But,  the  subject's  mind  being  intently  fixed  on  a  certain 
course,  the  instant  that  the  muscle-reader  deviates  from 
that  course  there  is  a  slight,  involuntary  tremor,  or  mus- 
cular thrill,  on  the  part  of  the  subject,  due  to  the  sudden 
interruption  of  his  previous  state  of  mental  tension.  The 
muscle-reader,  almost  unconsciously,  takes  note  of  the 
delicate  signal,  and  alters  his  course  to  the  proper  one, 
again  leading  his  willing  subject.  In  a  word,  he  follows 


44  SUBJECTIVE  PHENOMENA. 

the  line  of  the  least  resistance.  In  other  cases  the  condi- 
tions are  reversed;  the  subject  unwittingly  leads  the  prin- 
cipal. 

"The  discovery  of  a  bank-note  number  requires  a 
slightly  different  explanation.  The  conditions  are  these: 
The  subject  is  intently  thinking  of  a  certain  figure.  His 
mind  is  in  a  state  of  expectant  attention.  He  is  waiting 
for  but  one  thing  in  the  world  to  happen — for  another 
to  give  audible  expression  to  the  name  of  that  which  he 
has  in  mind.  The  instant  that  the  conditions  are  ful- 
filled, the  mind  of  the  subject  is  released  from  its  state 
of  tension,  and  the  accompanying  nervous  action  causes 
a  slight  muscular  tremor,  which  is  perceived  by  the  acute 
senses  of  the  muscle-reader.  This  explanation  applies, 
also,  to  the  pointing  out  of  one  pin  among  many,  or  of  a 
letter  or  a  figure  on  a  chart.  The  conditions  involved 
in  the  tracing  of  a  figure  on  a  blackboard  or  other  sur- 
face are  of  a  like  order,  although  this  is  a  severer  test 
of  a  muscle-reader's  powers.  So  long  as  the  muscle- 
reader  moves  the  crayon  in  the  right  direction,  he  is 
permitted  to  do  so;  but  when  he  deviates  from  the  proper 
course,  the  subject,  whose  hand  or  wrist  he  clasps,  in- 
voluntarily indicates  the  fact  by  the  usual  slight  mus- 
cular tremor.  This,  of  course,  is  done  involuntarily ;  but 


MUSCLE-READING.  45 

ifheisfulfilling  the  conditions  demanded  of  all  subjects, 
absolute  concentration  of  attention  and  absence  of  mus- 
cular control— he  unconsciously  obeys  his  impulse.  A 
billiard  player  does  the  same  when  he  follows  the  driven 
ball  with  his  cue,  as  if  by  sheer  force  of  will  he  could 
induce  it  to  alter  its  course.  The  ivory  is  uninfluenced; 
the  human  ball  obeys." 


III.       PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

1.    Psychography,  or  Slate- Writing. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  phases  of  modern  med- 
iumship,  on  the  physical  side,  is  psychography,  or  slate- 
writing.  After  an  investigation  extending  over  ten  years, 
I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  majority  of  slate- writing 
feats  are  the  results  of  conjuring.  The  process  generally 
used  is  the  following. 

The  medium  takes  two  slates,  binds  them  together, 
after  first  having  deposited  a  small  bit  of  chalk  or  slate 
pencil  between  their  surfaces,  and  either  holds  them  in 
his  hands,  or  lays  them  on  the  table.  Soon  the  scratch- 
ing of  the  pencil  is  heard,  and  when  the  cords  are  re- 
moved a  spirit  message  is  found  upon  the  surface  of  one 
of  the  slates.  I  will  endeavor  to  explain  the  "modus 
operandi"  of  these  startling  experiments. 

Some  years  ago,  the  most  famous  of  the  slate-writing 
mediums  was  Dr.  Henry  Slade,  of  New  York,  with 
whom  I  had  several  sittings.  I  was  unable  to  penetrate 
the  mystery  of  his  performance,  until  the  summer  of 


SLATE-WRITING. 


47 


FIG.    2.     DR.   HENRY  SLADE. 


1889,  when  light  was  thrown  upon  the  subject  by  the 
conjurer  C —  whom  I  met  in  Baltimore. 

"Do  you  know  the  medium  Slade?"    I  asked  him. 

"Yes, "said  he, "and  he  is  a  conjurer  like  myself.  I've 
had  sittings  with  him.  Come  to  my  rooms  to-night,  and 
I  will  explain  the  secret  workings  of  the  medium's  slate- 


48  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

writing.  But  first  I  will  treat  you  to  a  regular  seance." 
On  my  way  to  C's  home  I  tried  to  put  myself  in  the 
frame  of  mind  of  a  genuine  seeker  after  transcendental 
knowledge.  I  recalled  all  the  stories  of  mysterious  rap- 
pings  and  ghostly  visitations  I  had  read  or  heard  of.  It 
was  just  the  night  for  such  eerie  musings.  Black  clouds 
were  scurrying  across  the  face  of  the  moon  like  so  many 
mediaeval  witches  mounted  on  the  proverbial  broom- 
sticks en  route  for  a  mad  sabbat  in  some  lonely  church- 
yard. The  prestidigitateur's  pension  was  a  great,  lum- 
bering, gloomy  old  house,  in  an  old  quarter  of  Balti- 
more. The  windows  were  tightly  closed  and  only  the 
feeble  glimmer  of  gaslight  was  emitted  through  the 
cracks  of  the  shutters.  I  rang  the  bell  and  Mr.  C's 
stage-assistant,  a  pale-faced  young  man,  came  to  the 
door,  relieved  me  of  my  light  overcoat  and  hat,  and 
ushered  me  upstairs  into  the  conjurer's  sitting-room. 

A  large,  baize-covered  table  stood  in  the  centre  of  +he 
apartment,  and  a  cabinet  with  a  black  curtain  drawn 
across  it  occupied  a  position  in  a  deep  alcove.  Sus- 
pended from  the  roof  of  the  cabinet  was  a  large  gurtdr. 
I  took  a  chair  and  waited  patiently  for  the  appearance 
of  the  anti-Spiritualist,  after  having  first  examined  every- 
thing in  the  room — table,  cabinet,  and  musical  instru- 


SLATE-  WRITING.  49 

ments  —  but  I  discovered  no  evidence  of  trickery  any- 
where. I  waited  and  waited,  but  no  C  —  .  "Can  he 
have  forgotten  me?"  I  said  to  myself.  Suddenly  a  loud 
rap  resounded  on  the  table  top,  followed  by  a  succession 
of  raps  from  the  cabinet;  and  the  guitar  began  to  play. 
I  was  quite  startled.  When  the  music  ceased  the  door 
opened,  and  C  —  entered. 

"The  spirits  are  in  force  to-night,"  he  remarked  with  a 
meaning  smile,  as  he  slightly  diminished  the  light  in 
the  apartment. 

"Yes,"  I  replied.     "How  did  you  do  it?" 
"All  in  good  time,  my  dear  ghost-seer,"  was  the  an- 
swer.    "Let  us  try  first  a  few  of  Dr.  Slade's  best  slate 


So  saying  he  handed  me  a  slate  and  directed  me  to 
wash  it  carefully  on  both  sides  with  a  damp  cloth.  I 
did  so  and  passed  it  back  to  him.  Scattering  some  tiny 
fragments  of  pencil  upon  it,  he  held  the  slate  pressed 
against  the  under  surface  of  the  table  leaf,  the  fingers 
of  his  right  hand  holding  the  slate,  his  thumb  grasping 
the  leaf.  C  —  then  requested  me  to  hold  the  other  end 
of  the  slate  in  a  similar  fashion,  and  took  my  right  hand 
in  his  left.  Heavy  raps  were  heard  on  the  table-top,  and 
1  felt  the  fingers  of  a  spirit  hand  plucking  at  my  gar- 


5o  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

merits  from  beneath  the  table.  C — 's  body  seemed  pos- 
sessed with  some  strange  convulsion,  his  hands  quivered, 
and  his  eyes  had  a  glassy  look.  Listening  attentively,  I 
heard  the  sound  of  a  pencil  writing  on  the  slate. 

"Take  care!"  gasped  the  conjurer,  breathlessly. 

The  slate  was  jerked  violently  out  of  our  hands  by 
some  powerful  agency,  but  the  medium  regained  it,  and 
again  pressed  it  against  the  table  as  before.  In  a  little 
while  he  brought  the  slate  up  and  there  upon  its  upper 
surface  was  a  spirit  message,  addressed  to  me — "Are  you 
convinced  now? — D.  D.  Home." 

At  this  juncture  there  came  a  knock  at  the  door,  and 
C — ,  with  the  slate  in  his  hand,  went  to  see  who  it  was. 
It  proved  to  be  the  pale-faced  assistant.  A  few  words  in 
a  low-tone  of  voice  were  exchanged  between  them,  and 
the  conjurer  returned  to  the  table,  excusing  the  interrup- 
tion by  remarking,  "Some  one  to  see  me,  that  is  all,  but 
don't  hurry,  for  I  have  another  test  to  show  you."  After 
thoroughly  washing  both  sides  of  the  slate  he  placed 
it,  with  a  slate  pencil,  under  a  chafing-dish  cover  in  the 
center  of  the  -table.  We  joined  hands  and  awaited  de- 
velopments. 

Being  tolerably  well  acquainted  with  conjuring  de- 
vices, I  manifested  but  little  surprise  in  the  first  test 


SLATE-WRITING. 


5i 


FIG.  3.  THE  HOLDING  OP  THE  SLATE. 


52  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

when  the  spirit  message  was  written,  because  the  magi- 
cian had  his  fingers  on  the  slate.  But  in  this  test  the 
slate  was  not  in  his  possession;  how  then  could  the  writ- 
ing be  accomplished? 

"Hush!"  said  C— ,  "is  there  a  spirit  present?"  A  re- 
sponsive rap  resounded  on  the  table,  and  after  a  few 
minutes'  silence,  the  mysterious  scratching  of  the  slate- 
pencil  began.  I  was  nonplussed. 

"Turn  over  the  slate,"  said  the  juggler. 

I  complied  with  his  request  and  found  a  long  message 
to  me,  covering  the  entire  side  of  the  slate.  It  was  signed 
"Cagliostro." 

"What  do  you  think  of  Dr.  Slade's  slate  tests?"  in- 
quired C — . 

"Splendid!"  I  replied,  "but  how  are  they  done?" 

His  explanations  made  the  seeming  marvel  perfectly 
plain.  While  the  slate  is  being  examined  in  the  first 
test,  the  medium  slips  on  a  thimble  with  a  piece  of  slate 
pencil  attached  or  else  has  a  tiny  bit  of  pencil  under  his 
finger  nail.  In  the  act  of  holding  the  slate  under  the 
table,  he  writes  the  short  message  backwards  on  its  under 
side.  It  becomes  necessary,  however,  to  turn  the  slate 
over  before  exhibiting  it  to  the  sitter,  so  that  the  writing 
may  appear  to  have  been  written  on  its  upper  surface — 


SLATE-WRITING.  53 

the  side  that  has  been  pressed  to  the  table.  To  accom- 
plish this  the  medium  pretends  to  go  into  a  sort  of  neu- 
rotic convulsion,  during  which  state  the  slate  is  jerked 
away  from  the  sitter,  presumably  by  spirit  power,  and  is 
turned  over  in  the  required  position.  It  is  not  imme- 
diately brought  up  for  examination  but  is  held  for  a  few 

seconds  underneath  the  table  top,  and  then  produced  with 

« 
a  certain  amount  of  deliberation. 

The  special  difficulty  of  this  trick  consists  in  the  me- 
dium's ability  to  write  in  reverse  upon  the  under  surface 
of  fthe  slate.  If  he  wrote  from  left  to  right,  in  the  ordi- 
nary method,  it  would,  of  course,  reverse  the  message 
when  the  slate  is  examined,  and  give  a  decided  clue  to 
the  mystery.  This  inscribing  in  reverse, or  mirror  writ- 
ing, as  it  is  often  called,  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  do, 
but  nothing  is  impossible  to  a  Slade. 

But  how  is  the  writing  done  on  the  slate  in  the  second 
test?  asks  the  curious  reader.  Nothing  easier!  The 
servant  who  raps  at  the  door  brings  with  him,  concealed 
under  his  coat,  a  second  slate,  upon  which  the  long 
message  is  written.  Over  the  writing  is  a  pad  cut  frcm 
a  bookplate,  exactly  fitting  the  frame  of  the  prepared 
slate.  It  is  impossible  to  detect  the  fraud  when  the  light 
in  the  room  is  a  trifle  obscure.  The  medium  makes  an 


54  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

exchange  of  slates,  returns  to  the  table,  washes  both  sides 
of  the  trick  slate,  and  carelessly  exhibits  it  to  the  sitter, 
the  writing  being  protected  of  course  by  the  pad.  Be- 
fore placing  the  slate  under  the  chafing-dish  cover,  he 
lets  the  pad  drop  into  his  lap.  Now  comes  a  crucial  point 
in  the  imposture  :  the  writing  heard  beneath  the  slate, 
supposed  to  be  the  work  of  a  disembodied  spirit.  The 
medium  under  cover  of  his  handkerchief  removes  from 
his  pocket  an  instrument  known  as  a  "pencil-clamp." 
This  clamp  consists  of  a  small  block  of  wood  with  two 
sharp  steel  points  protruding  from  the  upper  edge  and  a 
piece  of  slate  pencil  fixed  in  the  lower.  The  medium 
presses  the  steel  points  into  the  under  surface  of  the 
table  with  sufficient  force  to  attach  the  block  securely 
to  the  table,  and  then  rubs  a  pencil,  previously  attached 
to  his  right  knee  by  silk  sutures,  against  the  side  of  the 
pencil  fastened  to  the  apparatus.  The  noise  produced 
thereby  exactly  simulates  that  of  writing  upon  a  slate. 
In  my  case  the  illusion  was-  perfect.  During  the  exami- 
nation of  the  message,  the  medium  has  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  secrete  the  false  pad  and  the  clamp  in  his 
pocket.  Instead  of  having  a  servant  bring  the  slate  to 
him  and  making  the  exchange  described  above,  he  may 
have  the  trick  slate  concealed  about  him  before  the  se- 


SLATE- WRITING.  55 

ance  begins,  with  the  message  written  on  it,  and  adroitly 
make  the  substitution  while  the  sitter  is  engaged  in  low- 
ering the  light.  Dr.  Slade  almost  invariably  adopted  the 
first-mentioned  exchange,  because  it  enabled  his  con- 
federate to  write  a  lucid  message  to  the  sitter. 

An  examination  of  the  sitter's  overcoat  in  the  hall  fre- 
quently yielded  valuable  information  in  the  way  of  names 
and  initials  extracted  from  letters,  sealed  or  unsealed. 
Sealed  letters?  Yes;  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  steam  a 
gummed  envelope,  open  it,  and  seal  it  again.  Another 
method  is  to  wet  the  sealed  envelope  with  a  sponge 
dipped  in  alcohol.  The  writing  will  show  up  tolerably 
well  if  written  upon  a  card.  In  a  very  short  time  the 
envelope  will  dry  and  exhibit  no  evidence  of  having  been 
tampered  with. 

And  now  as  to  the  rest  of  the  phenomena  witnessed 
that  evening  in  C — 's  room.  The  raps  on  the  table  top 
were  the  result  of  an  ingenious,  hidden  mechanism, 
worked  by  electricity ;  the  mysterious  hand  that  operated 
under  the  table  was  the  juggler's  right  foot.  He  wore 
slippers  and  had  the  toe  part  of  one  stocking  cut  away. 
By  dropping  the  slipper  from  his  foot  he  was  enabled 
to  pull  the  edge  of  my  coat,  lift  and  shove  a  chair  away, 
and  perform  sundry  other  ghostly  evolutions,  thanks  to 


56  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

a  well  trained  big  toe.  Dr.  Slack  who  was  long  and 
lithe  of  limb,  worked  this  dodge  to  perfection,  prior  to 
the  paralytic  attack  which  partly  disabled  his  lower 
limbs. 

The  stringed  instrument  which  played  in  the  cabinet 
was  arranged  as  follows:  Inside  of  the  guitar  was  a 
small  musical  box,  so  arranged  that  the  steel  vibrating 
tongues  of  the  box  came  in  contact  with  a  small  piece 
of  writing  paper.  When  the  box  was  set  to  going  by 
means  of  an  electric  current,  it  closely  imitated  the 
twanging  of  a  guitar,  just  as  a  sheet  of  music  when  laid 
on  the  strings  of  a  piano  simulates  a  banjo.  This  spirit 
guitar  is  a  very  useful  instrument  in  the  hands  of  a  med- 
ium. It  may  be  made  to  play  when  it  is  attached  to  a 
telescopic  rod,  and  waved  in  phosphorescent  curves  over 
the  heads  of  a  circle  of  believers  in  the  dark  seance. 

I  shall  now  sum  up  the  subject  of  Dr.  Slade's  spirit- 
slate  writing,  (Fig.  3)  and  endeavor  to  show  how  grossly 
exaggerated  the  reports  of  the  medium's  performances 
have  been,  and  the  reasons  for  such  misstatements.  No 
one  who  is  not  a  professional  or  amateur  prestidigitateur 
can  correctly  report  what  he  sees  at  a  spiritualistic  seance. 
It  is  not  so  much  the  swiftness  of  the  hand  that  counts 
in  conjuring  but  the  ability  to  force  the  attention  of  the 


SLATE-WRITING.  57 

spectators  in  different  directions  away  from  the  crucial 
point  of  the  trick.  The  really  important  part  of  the  test, 
then,  is  hidden  from  the  audience, 'who  imagine  they 
have  seen  all  when  they  have  not.  SaysDr.MaxDessoir: 
"It  must  therefore  be  regarded  as  a  piece  of  rare  naivete 
if  a  reporter  asserts  that  in  the  description  of  his  subjec- 
tive conclusions  he  is  giving  the  exact  objective  pro- 
cesses." 

This  will  be  seen  in  Mr.  Davey's  experiments.  Mr. 
Davey,  a  member  of  the  London  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  and  an  amateur  magician  who  possessed  great 
dexterity  in  the  slate-writing  business,  gave  a  series  of 
exhibitions  before  a  number  of  persons,  but  did  not  in- 
form them  that  the  results  were  due  to  prestidigitation. 
No  entrance  fee  was  charged  for  the  seances,  but  the 
sitters,  who  were  fully  impressed  with  the  genuineness  of 
the  affair,  were  requested  to  submit  written  reports  of 
what  they  had  seen.  These  letters,  published  in  vol.  iv 
of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society,  are  admirable  ex- 
amples of  mal-observation,  for  no  one  detected  Mr. 
Davey  exchanging  slates  and  doing  the  writing. 

"The  sources  of  error,"  says  Dr.  Max  Dessoir,  in  an 
article  reproduced  in  the  "Open  Court,"  "through  which 
such  strange  reports  arise,  may  be  arranged  in  four 


58  PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA. 

groups.  First,  the  observer  interpolates  a  fact  which  did 
not  happen,  but  which  he  is  led  to  believehas  happened; 
thus,  he  imagines  he  has  examined  the  slate  when  as  a 
fact  he  never  has.  Second,  he  confuses  two  similar  ideas ; 
he  thinks  he  has  carefully  examined  the  slate,  when  in 
reality  he  has  only  done  so  hastily,  or  in  ignorance  of  the 
point  at  issue.  Third,  the  witness  changes  the  order  of 
events  a  little  in  consequence  of  a  very  natural  deception 
of  memory;  he  believes  he  tested  the  slate  later  than  he 
actually  did.  Fourth  and  last,  he  passes  over  certain  de- 
tails which  were  purposely  described  to  him  as  insignifi- 
cant; he  does  not  notice  that  the  'medium*  asks  him  to 
close  a  window,  and  that  the  trick  is  thus  rendered  pos- 
sible." 

Similar  experiments  in  slate-writing  were  conducted 
by  the  Seybert  Commission  with  Mr.  Harry  Kellar,  the 
conjurer,  after  sittings  were  had  with  Dr.  Slade,  and  the 
magician  outdid  the  medium.  The  Seybert  Commission 
found  none  of  Slade's  tests  genuine,  and  officially  denied 
"the  extraordinary  stories  of  his  performances  with 
locked  slates  which  constitute  a  large  part  of  his  fame." 

Dr.  Slade  began  his  Spiritualistic  operations  in  Lon- 
don in-  the  year  1876,  and  charged  a  fee  of  a  guinea  a 
head  for  stances  lasting  a  few  minutes.  Crowds  went  to 


SLATE-WRITING.  59 

see  him  and  he  reaped  a  golden  harvest  from  the  credu- 
lous, until  the  grand  fiasco  came.  Slade  was  caught  in 
one  of  his  juggling  seances  and  exposed  by  Prof.  Lan- 
caster and  Dr.  Donkin.  The  result  was  a  criminal  prose- 
cution and  a  sensational  trial  lasting  three  days  at  the 
Bow  Street  Police  Court.  Mr.  Maskelyne,  the  conjurer, 
was  summoned  as  an  expert  witness  and  performed  a 
number  of  the  medium's  tricks  in  the  witness  box.  The 
court  sentenced  Slade  to  three  months'  hard  labor,  but 
he  took  an  appeal  from  the  magistrate's  decision.  The 
appeal  was  sustained  on  the  ground  of  a  technical  flaw 
in  the  indictment,  and  the  medium  fled  to  the  Continent 
before  new  summons  could  be  served.  He  visited  Paris, 
Leipsic,  Berlin,  St.  Petersburg  and  other  cities,  giving 
seances  before  Royalty  and  before  distinguished  mem- 
bers of  scientific  societies ;  and  afterwards  went  to  Aus- 
tralia. He  made  money  fast  and  spent  it  fast,  but  it  took 
all  of  his  ingenuity  to  elude  the  clutches  of  the  police. 
In  1892,  we  find  .him  the  inmate  of  a  workhouse  in  one 
of  our  Western  towns,  penniless,  friendless  and  a 
lunatic. 

Slade's  stances  with  Prof.  Zoellner,  of  Berlin,  in  1878, 
attracted  wide  attention,  and  did  more  to  advertise  his 
fame  as  a  medium  than  anything  else  in  his  career. 


6o  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA.     • 

Zoellner's  belief  in  the  genuineness  of  Slade's  medi- 
umistic  marvels  led  him  to  write  a  curious  work,  entitled, 
"Transcendental  Physics,"  being  an  inquiry  into  the 
"fourth  dimension  of  space."  Poor  old  Zoellner,  he  was 
half  insane  when  these  seances  were  held !  We  have  the 
undisputed  authority  of  the  Seybert  Commission  for  the 
correctness  of  this  statement. 

In  Hamburg,  Dr.  Borchert  wrote  to  Slade  offering 
him  one  thousand  marks  if  he  would  produce  writing  be- 
tween locked  slates,  similar  to  the  writing  alleged  to  have 
been  executed  at  the  Zoellner  seances,  but  the  medium 
took  no  notice  of  the  professor's  letter.  The  conjurer, 
Carl  Wilmann,  with  two  friends,  had  a  sitting  with 
Slade,  but  without  satisfactory  results  for  the  medium. 
"Slade,"  says  Wilmann,  "was  unable  to  distract  my  a1>- 
tention  from  the  crucial  point  of  the  trick,  and  threw 
down  the  slates  on  the  table  in  disgust,  remarking:  'I 
can  not  obtain  any  results  to-day,  the  power  that  controls 
me  is  exhausted.  Come  tomorrow!'  "  That  tomorrow 
never  arrived  for  Willmann  and  his  friends;  Slade  did 
not  keep  his  appointment,  nor  could  Wilmann  succeed 
in  obtaining  another  sitting  with  him.  The  medium  had 
been  warned  by  friends  that  Wilmann  was  an  expert 
professor  of  legerdemain. 


SLATE-WRITING.  6l 

It  was  in  1886  that  Slade  created  such  a  furore  in 
Hamburg  in  Spiritualistic  circles.  A  talented  conjurer 
of  that  city,  named  Schradieck,  after  a  few  weeks'  prac- 
tice succeeded  in  eclipsing  Slade.  He  learned  to  write 
in  reverse  on  slates,  and  produced  writing  in  various 
colored  chalks.  Another  one  of  his  experiments  was 
making  the  slate  disappear  from  one  side  of  the  table 
where  it  was  held  a  la  Slade  and  appear  at  the  opposite 
end  of  the  table  suddenly,  as  if  held  up  to  view  by  a 
spirit  hand.  Wilmann  describes  the  effect  as  startling  in 
the  extreme  and  says  Schradieck  produced  it  by  means 
of  his  left  foot.  After  Slade's  departure  from  Hamburg, 
spirit  mediums  sprang  up  like  toadstools  in  a  single 
night.  Wilmann  in  his  crusade  against  these  worthies 
tad  many  interesting  experiences.  He  gives  in  his  work 
"ModerneWunder"  several  exposes  of  mediumistic  tricks, 
two  of  which,  in  the  sealed  slate  line,  are  very  ingenious. 
The  medium  takes  a  slate  (one  furnished  by  the  sitter 
if  preferred),  wipes  it  on  both  sides  with  a  wet  sponge, 
and  then  wraps  it  up  carefully  in  a  piece  of  ordinary 
white  wrapping  paper,  allowing  the  package  to  be  sealed 
and  corded  ad  libitum.  Notwithstanding  all  the  pre- 
cautions used,  a  message  appears  on  the  slate.  It  is  ac- 
complished in  this  way.  A  message  in  reverse  is  written 


$2  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

on  the  wrapping  paper  with  a  camel's  hair  brush  or 
pointed  stick,  dipped  in  some  sticky  substance,  and  finely 
powdered  slate  pencil  dust  is  scattered  over  the  writing. 
At  a  little  distance,  especially  in  a  dim  light,  it  is  im- 
possible to  discover  the  writing  as  it  blends  very  well 
with  the  white  paper.  In  wrapping  up  the  slate  the  med- 
ium presses  the  writing  on  the  paper  against  the  sur- 
face of  the  slate  and  the  chirography  adheres  thereto, 
very  much  as  the  greasy  drawing  on  a  lithographer's 
stone  prints  on  paper. 

In  the  other  experiment  the  medium  uses  a  papier 
mache  slate,  set  in  the  usual  wooden  frame.  A  papier 
mache  pad  is  prepared  with  a  spirit  message  on  one  sur- 
face; on  the  other  is  pasted  a  piece  of  newspaper.  This 
pad  is  laid,  written  side  down,  on  a  sheet  of  newspaper. 
After  the  genuine  slate  has  been  washed,  the  medium 
proceeds  to  wrap  it  up  in  the  newspaper,  and  presses  the 
trick  pad,  writing  up,  into  the  frame  of  the  slate  where 
it  exactly  fits  into  a  groove  prepared  for  the  purpose. 

Since  Dr.  Slade's  retirement  from  the  mediumistic 
field,  Pierre  L.  O.  A.  Keeler's  fame  as  a  slate-writing 
medium  has  been  spread  broadcast.  He  oscillates  be- 
tween Boston,  New  York,  Cleveland,  Philadelphia,  Bal- 
timore and  Washington,  and  has  a  very  large  and  fash- 


SLATE- WRITING.  63 

ionable  clientele.  He  gives  evening  materializing  seances 
of  the  cabinet  type  three  times  a  week  at  his  rooms. 
During  the  day  he  gives  private  slate  tests  which  are 
very  popular. 

I  had  a  sitting  with  him  on  the  afternoon  of  April 
24th,  1895.  In  order  to  gain  his  confidence,  I  went  as 
one  witnessing  a  slate  seance  for  the  finfc  time,  that  is, 
I  accepted  his  slates,  and  had  no  prepared  questions.  • 

I  was  ushered  into  a  small,  back  parlor  by  the  medium 
who  closed  the  folding  doors.  We  were  alone.  I  made 
a  mental  photograph  of  the  surroundings.  There  was 
no  furniture  except  a  table  and  two  chairs  placed  near 
the  window.  Over  the  table  was  a  faded  cloth,  hanging 
some  eight  or  ten  inches  below  the  table.  Upon  it  were 
several  pads  of  paper  and  a  heterogeneous  assortment 
of  lead  pencils.  Leaning  against  the  mantelpiece,  within 
a  foot  or  so  of  the  medium's  chair,  were  some  thirty  or 
forty  slates. 

"Take  a  seat",  said  Mr.  Keeler  pointing  to  a  chair.  I 
sat  down,  whereupon  he  seated  himself  opposite  me, 
remarking  as  he  did  so,  "Have  you  brought  slates  with 
you?" 

"I  have  not,"  was  my  reply. 

"Then,  if  you  have  no  objection,"  he  said,  "we  will  use 


64  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

two  of  mine.  Please  examine  these  two  slates,  wash 
them  clean  with  this  damp  cloth,  and  dry  them."  With 
that  he  passed  me  two  ordinary  school-slates,  which  I 
inspected  closely,  and  carefully  cleaned. 

"Be  kind  enough  to  place  the  slates  to  one  side,"  said 
Keeler.  I  complied. 

"Have  you  prepared  any  slips  with  the  names  of 
friends,  relatives,  or  others,  who  have  passed  into  spirit 
life,  with  questions  for  them  to  answer?" 

"I  have  not,"  I  replied. 

"Kindly  do  so  then,"  he  answered,  "and  take  your 
time  about  it.  There  is  a  pad  on  the  table.  Please  write 
but  a  single  question  on  each  slip.  Then  fold  the  slips 
and  place  them  on  the  table."  I  did  so. 

"I  will  also  make  one,"  he  continued,  "it  is  to  my 
spirit  control,  George  Christy."  He  wrote  a  name  on  a 
slip  of  paper,  folded  it,  and  tossed  it  among  those  I  had 
prepared,  passing  his  hand  over  them  and  fingering 
them,  saying,  "It  is  necessary  to  get  a  psychic  impres- 
sion from  them."  We  sat  in  silence  several  minutes. 

After  a  little  while  Mr.  Keeler  said :  "I  do  not  know 
whether  or  not  we  shall  get  any  responses  this  after- 
noon, but  have  patience."  Again  we  waited.  "Suppose 
you  write  a  few  more  slips,"  he  remarked,  "perhaps  we'll 


SLATE-WRITING.  67 

have  better  luck.  Be  sure  and  address  them  to  people 
who  were  old  enough  to  write  before  they  passed  into 
spirit  life."  This  surprised  me,  but  I  complied  with  his 
wishes.  While  writing  I  glanced  furtively  at  him  from 
time  to  time ;  his  hands  were  in  his  lap,  concealed  by  the 
table  cloth.  He  looked  at  me  occasionally,  then  ait  his 
lap,  fixedly.  /  am  satisfied  that  he  opened  some  of  my 
slips,  having  adroitly  abstracted  them  from  the  table  in 
the  act  of  fingering  them. 

He  directed  me  to  take  my  handkerchief  and  tie  the 
two  slates  on  the  table  tightly  together,  holding  the  slates 
in  his  hands  as  I  did  so.  I  laid  the  slates  on  the  table 
before  me,  and  we  waited.  "I  think  we  will  succeed 
this  time  in  getting  responses  to  some  of  the  questions. 
Let  us  hold  the  slates."  He  grasped  them  with  ringers 
and  thumbs  at  one  end,  and  I  at  the  other  in  like 
manner,  holding  the  slates  about  two  inches  above  the 
table.  We  listened  attentively,  and  soon  was  heard  the 
scratching  noise  of  a  slate  pencil  moving  upon  a  slate. 
The  sound  seemed  directly  under  the  slate,  and  was 
sufficiently  impressive  to  startle  any  person  making  a 
slate  test  for  the  first  time,  and  unacquainted  with  the 
multifarious  devices  of  the  sleight-of-hand  artist. 

"Hold  the  slates  tightly,  please!"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  as 


68  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

a  convulsive  tremor  shook  his  hands.  I  grasped  firmly 
my  end  of  the  slates,  and  waited  further  developments. 
The  faint  tap  of  a  slate  pencil  upon  a  slate  was  heard, 
and  the  medium  announced  that  the  communications 
were  finished.  I  untied  the  handkerchief,  and  turned  up 
the  inner  surfaces  of  the  slates.  Upon  one  of  them  sev- 
eral messages  were  written,  and  signed.  Other  com- 
munications were  received  during  the  sitting.  After  the 
first  messages  were  received,  and  while  I  was  engaged 
in  reading  them,  Keeler  quickly  picked  up  a  slate  from 
the  floor,  clapped  it  upon  the  clean  slate  remaining  on  the 
table,  and  requested  me  to  tie  the  two  rapidly  together 
with  my  handkerchief  before  the  influence  was  lost.  At 
a  signal  from  him  I  unfastened  the  slates  and  found  an- 
other set  of  answers.  The  same  proceeding  was  gone 
through  for  the  third  set.  The  imitation  of  a  pencil  writ- 
ing upon  a  slate  was  either  made  by  the  apparatus, 
described  in  the  seance  with  C —  in  the  first  part  of  this 
chapter,  or  by  some  other  contrivance;  more  than 
likely  by  simply  scratching  with  his  finger  on  the 
under  surface  of  the  slate.  While  my  attention 
was  absorbed  in  the  act  of  writing  my  second  set 
of  questions,  he  prepared  answers  to  two  of  my  first  set 
and  substituted  a  prepared  slate  for  the  cleaned  slate  on 


SLATE-WRITING.  69 

the  table.  /  was  sure  he  zvas  writing  under  the  table; 
I  heard  the  faint  rubbing  of  a  soft  bit  of  pencil  upon 
the  surface  of  a  slate.  His  hands  were  in  his  lap  and 
his  eyes  were  fixed  downwards.  Several  times  I  saw  him 
put  his  fingers  into  his  vest  pockets,  and  he  appeared  to 
bring  up  small  particles  of  something,  which  I  believe 
were  bits  of  the  white  and  colored  crayons  used  in  writ- 
ing the  messages.  His  quiet  audacity  was  surprising. 
I  give  below  the  questions  and  answers  with  my  com- 
ments thereon : 

First  Slate.    Fig.  4. 

QUESTION. 

To  Mamie: — 

Tell  me  the  name  of  your  dead  brother? 

(Signed)  Harry  R.  Evans. 

ANSWER. 

You  must  nob  think  of  me  as  one  gone  forever  from 
you.  You  have  made  conditions  by  and  through  which 
I  can  return  to  you,  and  so  long  as  I  can  do  this  I  can 
not  feel  unhappy.  So  dear  one,  rest  in  the  assurance 
that  you  are  helping  me,  and  that  I  am  doing  all  I  can 
to  help  you.  Let  us  make  the  best  of  it  all  and  help  each 
other  as  best  we  can,  then  all  will  be  well.  My  home  in 
spirit  life  is  beautiful  and  awaiting  you.  I  will  be  the 


70  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

first  to  greet  you.  /  have  no  dead  brother.  All  of  us  are 
living.  I  am  Mamie  — .  (The  medium  here  cleverly 
evades  giving  a  name  by  an  equivoque.) 

QUESTION. 
To  Len— 

Tell  me  the  cause  of  your  death,  and  the  circum- 
stances surrounding  it? 

(Signed)  Harry  R.  Evans. 

ANSWER. 

Harry!  I  am  very  glad  to  see  you.  I  am  happy. 
You  must  be  reconciled,  and  not  mourn  me  as  dead! 
I  will  try  to  come  again  soon,  when  I  am  stronger  and 
tell  of  my  decease.  — Len.  (He  again  evades  an  an- 
swer.) 

Second  Slate.    Fig.  5. 

QUESTION. 

To  A.  D.  B— 

When  and  where  did  you  die? 

(Signed)  Harry  R.  Evans. 

ANSWER. 

This  all  seems  so  strange  coming  back  and  writing 
just  as  one  would  if  they  were  in  the  earth  life  and  com- 
municating with  a  friend.  What  a  blessed  privilege  it  is. 
I  am  so  happy.  Oh,  I  would  not  come  back.  It  is  so 


SLATE-WRITING.  73 

restful  here.  No  pain  or  sorrow.  Dear,  do  not  think 
I  have  forgotten  you,  I  constantly  think  of  you  and  wish 
that  you,  too,  might  view  these  lovely  scenes  of  glorious 
beauty.  You  must  rest  with  the  thought  that  when  your 
life  is  ended  upon  the  earth,  /  will  be  the  first  to  meet  you. 
Now  be  patient  and  hopeful  until  we  meet  where  there 
is  no  more  parting.  I  am  sincerely,  A.  D.  B.  (No  an- 
swer at  all.  Observe  error  in  first  sentence:  "as  one 
would  if  they  were — ."  A.  D.  B.  was  an  educated  gen- 
tleman, and  not  given  to  such  ungrammatical  expres- 
sions. 

Third  Slate.    Fig.  6. 
QUESTION. 

To  B.  G.— 

Can  you  recall  any  of  the  conversations  we  had 
together  on  the  B.  and  P.  R.  R.  cars? 

(Signed)  H.  R.  Evans. 

ANSWER. 

O  my  dear  one,  I  can  only  write  a  few  lines  that  you 
may  know  that  I  see  and  hear  you  as  you  call  upon  me. 
I  do  not  forget  yon.  When  I  am  stronger  will  come 
again.  I  do  not  know  what  conversation  you  refer  to  in 
the  cars.  B.  G. 

(Again  evades  answering.     B.  G.  was  very  much  in- 


74  PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA. 

terested  in  the  drama,  and  talked  continuously  about 
the  stage.) 

QUESTION. 
To  C.  J.— 

Where  did  you  die,  and  from  what  disease? 

(Signed)  H.  R.  Evans. 

ANSWER. 

I  know  the  days  and  weeks  seem  long  and  lonely  to 
you  without  me.  I  do  not  forget  you ;  am  doing  the  best 
I  can  to  help  you.  C.  J. — . 

(Still  another  evasion  of  a  straightforward  question. 
The  lady  in  spirit  life  to  whom  the  question  was  ad- 
dressed died  of  consumption  in  a  Roman  Catholic  Con- 
vent. She  was  only  a  society  acquaintance  of  the  writer, 
and  not  on  such  terms  of  intimacy  as  to  warrant  Mr. 
Keeler's  reply.) 

In  one  corner  of  Slate  No.  2  was  the  following, 
written  with  a  yellow  crayon:  "This  is  remarkable. 
How  did  you  know  we  could  come? — H.  K.  Evans." 
Scrawled  across  the  face  of  Slate  No.  3,  in  red  pencil, 
was  a  communication  from  George  Christy,  Mr.  Keeler's 
spirit  control,  reading  as  follows:  "Many  are  here  who 

G.  C.  (George  Christy)"  (The  remainder  is  so 

badly  written,  as  to  be  indecipherable.) 


SLATE-WRITING.  75 

On  carefully  analyzing  the  various  communications  it 
will  be  observed  that  the  handwriting  of  the  messages 
from  Mamie —  and  B  G. —  are  similar,  possessing  the 
same  characteristics  as  regards  letter  formation,  etc.  It 
does  not  require  a  professional  expert  in  chirography  to 
detect  this  fact.  One  and  the  same  person  wrote  the 
messages  purporting  to  come  from  Mamie  R — ,  Len — , 
B.  G.— ,  C.  J.— ,  and  A.  D.  B.  In  fact,  the  writing  on 
all  the  slates  is,  in  my  opinion ,  the  work  of  Mr.  Pierre 
Keeler. 

The  longer  communications  were  doubtless  prepared 
beforehand,  being  general  in  nature  and  conveying 
about  the  same  information  that  any  departed  spirit 
might  give  to  any  inquiring  mortal,  but,  as  will  be  ob- 
served, giving  no  adequate  answers  to  the  queries,  with 
the  exception  of  the  last  two  sentences,  which  were 
written  by  the  medium,  after  he  became  acquainted  with 
the  tenor  of  the  questions  upon  the  folded  slips.  The  very 
short  communications  are  written  in  a  careless  hand, 
such  as  a  man  would  dash  off  hastily,  There  is  an  at- 
tempt at  disguise,  but  a  clumsy  one,  the  letters  still  re- 
taining the  characteristics  of  the  more  deliberate  chiro- 
graphy of  the  long  communications.  A  close  inspection 


76  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

of  the  slates  reveals  the  exact  similarity  of  the  y's,  u's, 
Fs,  g's,  h's,  m's  and  n's. 

The  handwriting  of  messages  on  slates  should  be,  and 
is  claimed  to  be,  adequate  evidence  of  the  genuineness  of 
the  communication,  for  are  we  nob  supposed  to  know 
the  handwriting  of  our  friends? 

Possibly  Mr.  Keeler  would  claim  that  the  handwriting 
was  the  work  of  his  control  "Geo.  Christy",  who  acted 
as  a  sort  of  amanuensis  for  the  spirits.  If  this  be  so,  why 
the  attempts  at  disguise,  and  bungling  attempts  at  that? 

In  the  seanoe  with  Mr.  Keeler,  I  subjected  him  to  no 
tests.  He  had  everything  his  own  way.  /  should  have 
brought  my  own  marked  slates  with  me  and  never  let 
them  out  of  my  sight  for  an  instant,  I  should  have 
subjected  the  table  to  a  close  examination,  and  requested 
the  medium  to  move  or  rather  myself  removed  the 
collection  of  slates  against  the  mantel,  placed  so  con- 
veniently within  his  reach.  I  did  not  do  this,  because 
of  his  well  known  irascibility.  He  would  probably  have 
shown  me  the  door  and  refused  a  sitting  on  any  terms, 
as  he  has  done  to  many  skeptics.  I  was  anxious  to  meet 
Keeler,  and  preferred  playing  the  novice  rather  than  not 
get  a  slate  test  from  one  of  the  best-known  and  most 
famous  of  modern  slate-writing  mediums. 


SLATE-WRITING.  79 

After  what  has  been  stated,  I  think  there  can  be  no 
shadow  of  doubt  that  the  medium  abstracted  by  sleight- 
of-hand  some  of  the  paper  slips  containing  my  written 
questions,  read  them  under  cover  of  the  table,  and  did  the 
slate-writing  himself.  All  of  these  slate-tests,  where 
pellets  or  slips  of  paper  are  used,  are  performed  in  a  sim- 
ilar manner,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  exposS  published 
by  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research.  In  vol.  viii  of 
the  proceedings  of  that  association  will  be  found  a 
number  of  revelations,  one  of  which  throws  consider- 
able light  on  the  Keeler  tests.  The  sitter  was  Dr. 
Richard  Hodgson,  and  the  medium  was  a  Mrs.  Gillett. 
Says  Dr.  Hodgson: 

"Under  pretence  of  'magnetising'  the  pellets  prepared 
by  the  sitter,  or  folding  them  more  tightly,  she  substi- 
tutes a  pellet  of  her  own  for  one  of  the  sitter's.  Reading 
the  sitter's  pellet  below  the  table,  she  writes  the  answer 
on  one  of  her  own  slates,  a  pile  of  which,  out  of  the 
sitter's  view,  she  keeps  on  a  chair  by  her  side.  She 
then  takes  a  second  slate,  places  it  on  the  table,  and 
sponges  and  dries  both  sides,  after  which  she  takes  the 
first  slate,  and  turning  the  side  upon  which  she  has 
written  towards  herself,  rubs  it  in  several  places  with  a 
dry  cloth  or  the  ends  of  her  fingers  as  though  cleaning 


Bo  PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA. 

it.  She  then  places  it,  writing  downward,  on  the  other 
slate  on  the  table,  and  sponges  and  dries  the  upper  sur- 
face of  it.  She  then  pretends  to  take  one  of  the  pellets 
on  the  table  and  put  it  between  the  two  slates.  What  she 
does,  however,  is  to  bring  the  pellet  up  from  below 
the  table,  take  another  of  the  sitter's  pellets  on  the  table 
into  her  hand,  and  place  the  pellet  which  she  has  brought 
up  from  below  the  table  between  the  slates,  keeping  in 
her  hand  the  pellet  just  taken  from  the  top  of  the  table. 
The  final  step  is  to  place  a  rubber  band  round  both 
slates,  in  doing  which  she  turns  both  slates 
over  together.  She  professes  to  get  the  writing 
without  the  use  of  any  chalk  or  pencil.  Some  of  her 
slates  are  prepared  beforehand  with  messages  or  draw- 
ings. More  interesting,  perhaps,  because  of  its  bold- 
ness, is  her  method  of  producing  writing  on  the  sitter's 
own  slates.  Under  the  pretence  of  'magnetising'  these 
she  cleans  them  several  times,  rubs  them  with  her  hands, 
stands  them  up  on  end  together,  and  while  they  are  in 
this  position  between  herself  and  the  sitter  she  writes 
with  one  hand  on  the  slate-side  nearest  to  herself,  holding 
the  slates  erect  with  the  other  hand.  Later  on,  she  lays 
both  slates  together  flat  on  the  table  again,  the  writing 
being  on  the  undermost  surface.  She  then  sponges  the 


SLATE-WRITING.  8l 

upper  surface  of  the  top  slate,  turns  it  over,  and  sponges 
its  other  surface.  She  next  withdraws  the  bottom  slate, 
places  it  on  top  and  sponges  its  top  surface,  keeping  its 
under  surface  carefully  concealed.  The  final  step,  the 
reversal,  is  made,  as  in  the  other  case,  with  the  help  of 
the  rubber  band.  Mrs.  Gillett  has  probably  other 
methods,  also.  Those  which  I  have  described  were  all 
that  I  witnessed  at  my  single  sitting  with  her." 

My  friend,  Dr.  L.  M.  Taylor,  of  Washington,  D.C., an 
investigator  of  Spiritualistic  phenomena,  and  skeptical 
like  myself  of  the  objective  phases  of  the  subject,  has  had 
many  sittings  with  Keeler  for  independent  slate-writing. 
One  seance  in  particular  he  is  fond  of  relating: 

"On  one  occasion,  after  I  had  written  my  slips,  folded 
them  up>  and  tossed  them  on  the  table,  I  said  to  Keeler 
who  was  obtaining  his  'psychic'  impression  of  them,  'I 
wish,  if  possible,  to  have  a  spirit  tell  me  the  numbers  and 
the  maker's  name  engraved  in  my  watch.  I  have  never 
taken  the  trouble  to  look  at  the  numbers,  consequently 
I  do  not  know  them.'  'Your  request  is  an  unusual  one/ 
replied  the  medium,  'but  I  will  endeavor  to  gratify  it.' 
We  had  some  conversations  on  the  subject  that  lasted 
several  minutes.  Suddenly  he  picked  up  a  slate  pencil, 
and  scrawled  the  name,  7.  S.  Granger  on  the  upper  sur- 


82  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

face  of  one  of  my  slates;  the  two  slates  had  been  pre- 
viously tied  together  with  my  handkerchief  and  laid  on 
the  table  in  front  of  me.  'You  recognize  that  name,  do 
you  not?'  asked  Keeler.  'Yes/  I  replied,  'that  is  one  of 
the  names  I  wrote  on  the  slips.  J.  S.  Granger  was  an 
old  friend  of  mine  who  died  some  years  ago.  He  was  a 
brother-in-law  of  Stephen  A.  Douglass.'  'If  you  wish 
to  facilitate  matters,'  said  Keeler,  'place  your  watch  on 
top  of  the  slates,  concealed  beneath  the  handkerchief, 
otherwise  we  may  have  to  wait  an  hour  or  more  without 
obtaining  results,  and  there  are  a  number  of  persons 
waiting  for  me  in  the  ante-room.  My  time  you  see  is 
limited/ 

"I  detached  my  watch  from  its  chain,  and  placed  it 
in  the  required  position.  Keeler  then  took  a  piece  of 
black  cloth,  used  to  clean  slates,  and  laid  it  over  my 
slates.  Finally  he  requested  me  to  take  the  covered  slates 
and  hold  them  in  my  lap.  I  took  care  to  feel  through 
the  cloth  that  the  watch  was  still  beneath  the  handker- 
chief. In  a  short  time  I  was  directed  to  uncover  the 
slates,  and  untie  them,  which  I  did.  Upon  the  inner 
surface  of  one  of  the  slates  the  following  message  was 
written:  'Dear  Friend,  Stephen  is  with  me.  I  have 
been  through  that  beautiful  watch  of  yours,  and,  if  I  see 


SLATE-WRITING.  83 

correcty,  the  number  is  163131.  On  the  inside  I  see 
this— E.  Howard  &  Co.,  Boston,  211327.  And  then 
your  name  as  follows:  Dr.  L.  M.  Taylor,  1221  Mass. 
Ave.,  N.  W.,  Washington,  D.  C.  Signed  J.  M.  Granger.' 

"I  then  compared  the  name  and  numbers  in  my  watch 
with  those  on  the  slate,  and  found  the  latter  correct,  with 
the  exception  of  one  number.  A  relative  of  mine  was 
present  in  the  room  during  this  seance,  and  I  showed 
her  the  communication  on  the  slate.  Afterwards  we 
passed  the  slate  to  Keeler  who  examined  it  closely. 
When  he  handed  it  back  to  me,  I  was  surprised  to  see 
that  the  incorrect  number  was  mysteriously  changed  to 
the  proper  one." 

This  is  a  very  interesting  test,  indeed,  because  of  its 
apparently  impromptu  character.  I  have  seen  similar 
feats  performed  by  professional  conjurers  as  well  as 
mediums.  A  dummy  watch  is  substituted  for  the  sitter's 
watch,  and  after  the  medium  has  ascertained  the  name 
and  numbers  on  the  sitter's  timepiece,  he  succeeds  in 
adroitly  exchanging  it  again  for  the  dummy,  thanks  to 
the  black  cloth.  The  writing  on  the  slate  in  the  above 
seance  was  evidently  produced  in  the  same  way  as  that 
described  in  my  sitting  with  Keeler,  after  he  had  ascer- 
tained the  name  on  the  slip.  The  name  of  Stephen,  of 


84  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

course,  was  directly  obtained  from  Dr.  Taylor.  Not 
having  been  an  eye  witness  of  Keeler's  movements  in 
the  watch  test,  I  am  unable  to  say  how  closely  Dr. 
Taylor's  description  coincides  with  the  medium's  actual 
operations. 

In  May,  1897,  Mr.  Pierre  Keeler  was  in  Washington, 
D.C.,as  usual.  My  friend,  Dr.  Taylor,  who  was  desirous 
of  putting  the  medium  to  another  crucial  test,wrote  down 
a  list  of  names  on  a  sheet  of  paper — cognomens  of  an- 
cient Egyptian,  Chaldean,  and  Grecian  priests  and  phi- 
losophers— folded  the  paper,  and  carefully  sealed  it  in  an 
envelope.  He  took  ten  slates  with  him,  all  of  them 
marked  with  a  private  mark  of  his  own.  Mr.  Keeler 
eyed  the  envelope  dubiously,  but  passed  no  criticisms 
on  the  doctor's  precautions  to  prevent  trickery.  The 
two  men  sat  down  at  a  table  and  waited  for  the  spirits 
to  manifest.  Dr.  Taylor,  on  this  occasion,  was  abso- 
lutely certain  that  his  slates  had  not  been  tampered 
with,  and  that  the  medium  had  not  succeeded  in  open- 
ing the  envelope.  In  a  little  while  the  comedy  of  the 
pencil-scratching  between  the  tied  slates  began. 

"Ah",  exclaimed  the  physician,  "a  message  at  last!" 
Then  he  thought  to  himself,  "can  the  medium  possibly 
have  deluded  my  senses  by  some  hypnotic  power,  and 


SLATE-WRITING.  85 

adroitly  opened  that  envelope  without  my  being  aware 
of  the  fact?  But  no,  that  is  impossible!" 

Mr.  Keeler  took  the  slates  away  from  Dr.  Taylor,  and 
quickly  opened  them,  accidentally  dropping  one  of  them 
behind  the  table.  In  a  second,  however,  he  brought  up 
the  slate,  and  remarked:  "How  awkward  of  me.  I  beg 
your  pardon,"  etc.  On  the  surface  of  this  slate  was 
written  the  following  sentence:  "See  some  other  medi- 
um; d — n  it! — George  Christy."  Dr.  Taylor  is  positive, 
as  he  has  repeatedly  told  me,  that  this  message  was  not 
inscribed  on  his  own  marked  slate,  but  was  written  by 
the  medium  on  one  of  his  own.  The  exchange,  of  course, 
must  have  been  effected  in  the  pretended  accidental  drop- 
ping of  the  doctor's  slate  by  the  medium.  This  is  a  very 
old  expedient  among  pretenders  to  spirit  power.  All 
conjurers  are  familiar  with  the  device.  Imro  Fox,  the 
American  magician,  uses  it  constantly  in  his  entertain- 
ments, with  capital  effect. 

Dr.  Taylor,  unfortunately,  did  not  succeed  in  getting 
possession  of  the  medium's  prepared  slate.  Another  ex- 
change was  undoubtedlv  made  by  Mr.  Keeler,  and  the 
physician  had  returned  to  him  his  own  marked  slate. 
When  he  got  home  that  afternoon,  and  had  time  to  care- 
fully scrutinize  his  slates,  he  found  that  they  bore  no 


86  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

evidence  of  having  been  written  upon  at  all.  Having 
also  examined  these  slates,  I  am  prepared  to  add 
my  testimony  to  that  of  Dr.  Taylor. 

The  reader  will  see  from  the  above-described  seance 
that  unless  the  medium  (or  a  confederate)  is  enabled  to 
read  the  names  and  questions,  prepared  by  the  sitter, 
his  hands  are  practically  tied  in  all   experiments  in 
psychology. 

When  investigators  bring  their  own  marked  slates 
with  them,  screwed  tightly  together,  and  sealed,  the  me- 
dium has  to  adopt  different  tactics  from  those  employed 
in  the  tests  before  mentioned.  He  has  to  call  in  the  aid 
of  a  confederate.  The  audacity  of  the  sealed-slate  test 
is  without  parallel  in  the  annals  of  pretended  medium- 
ship.  For  an  insight  into  the  secrets  of  this  phase  of 
psychography,  the  reading  public  is  indebted  to  a  me- 
dium, the  anonymous  author  of  a  remarkably  interesting 
work,  "Revelations  of  a  Spirit  Medium."  Many  skeptical 
investigators  have  been  converted  to  Spiritualism  by 
these  tests.  They  invariably  say  to  you  when  approached 
on  the  subject:  "I  took  my  own  marked  slates,  care- 
fully screwed  together,  to  the  medium,  and  had  lengthy 
messages  written  upon  them  by  spirit  power.  These 
slates  never  left  my  hands  for  a  second."  I  will  quote 


SLATE-WRITING.  87 

what  the  writer  of  "Revelations  of  a  Spirit  Medium"  says 
on  the  subject: 

"No  man  ever  received  independent  slate-writing  be- 
tween slates  fastened  together  that  he  did  not  allow  out 
of  his  hands  a  few  seconds.  Scores  of  persons  will  tell 
you  that  they  have  received  writing  under  those  condi- 
tions through  the  mediumship  of  the  writer;  but  the 
writer  will  tell  you  how  he  fooled  them  and  how  you  can 
do  so  if  you  see  fit. 

"In  the  first  place  you  will  rent  a  house  with  a  cellar 
in  connection.  Cut  a  trap-door  one  foot  square  through 
the  floor  between  the  sills  on  which  the  floor  is  laid. 
Procure  a  fur  floor  mat  with  long  hair.  Cut  a  square 
out)  of  the  mat  and  tack  it  <to  the  top  of  the  trap  door. 
Tack  the  mat  fast  to  the  floor,  for  some  one  may  visit 
you  who  will  want  to  raise  it  up. 

"Explain  the  presence  of  the  fur  by  saying  it  is  an  ab- 
sorbent of  magnetic  forces,  through  which  you  produce 
the  writing.  Over  the  rug  place  a  heavy  pine  table  about 
four  feet  square;  and  over  the  table  a  heavy  cover  that 
reaches  the  floor  on  all  sides.  Put  your  assistant  in  the 
cellar  with  a  coal-oil  stove,  a  tea-kettle  of  hot  water,  dif- 
ferent colored  letter  wax  and  lead  pencils,  a  screw 
driver,  a  pair  of  nippers,  a  pair  of  pliers,  a  pair  of  scis- 


88  PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA. 

sors  and  an  assortment  of  wire  brads.  You  are  ready 
for  business. 

"When  your  sitter  comes  in  you  will  notice  his  slates, 
if  he  brings  a  pair,  and  see  if  they  are  secured  in  any  way 
that  your  man  in  the  cellar  can  not  duplicate.  If  they 
are,  you  can  touch  his  slates  with  your  finger  and  say  to 
him  that  you  can  not  use  his  slates  on  account  of  the 
'magnetism'  with  which  they  are  saturated.  He  will 
know  nothing  of  'magnetic  conditions'  and  will  ask  you 
what  he  is  to  do  about  it. 

"You  will  furnish  him  a  pair  of  new  slates  with  water 
and  cloths  to  clean  them.  You  also  furnish  him  paper 
to  write  his  questions  on  and  the  screws,  wax,  paper 
and  mucilage  to  secure  them  with.  He  will  write  his 
questions  and  fasten  the  slates  securely  together. 

"You  now  conduct  him  to  your  seance-room  and  invite 
inspection  of  your  table  and  surroundings.  After  the 
examination  has  been  made  you  will  seat  the  sitter  at 
one  side  of  the  table  with  1  is  side  and  arm  next  it.  If 
he  desires  to  keep  hold  of  the  slates  a  signal  agreed  upon 
between  yourself  and  your  assistant  will  cause  the  spirit 
in  the  cellar  to  open  the  trap  door,  which  opens  down- 
wards, and  to  push  through  the  floor  and  into  position 
where  the  sitter  can  grasp  one  end  of  it,  a  pair  of  dummy 


SLATE-WRITING.  85 

slates.  This  dummy  your  assistant  will  continue  to  hold 
until  the  sitter  has  taken  hold  of  it  after  the  following 
performance: 

"Your  assistant  lets  you  know  everything  is  ready  by 
touching  your  foot.  You  now  reach  and  take  the  sitter's 
slates  and  put  them  below  the  table,  and  under  it,  telling 
the  sitter  to  put  his  hand  under  from  his  side  and  hold 
them  with  you.  He  puts  his  hand  under  and  gets  hold 
of  the  dummy  slates  held  by  your  assistant. 

"Your  assistant  holds  on  until  you  have  stood  the 
slates  on  end,  leaning  against  the  table  leg,  and  have 
got  hold  of  the  dummy.  He  then  takes  the  sitter's  slates 
below  and  closes  the  trap.  He  proceeds  to  open  them, 
read  the  questions,  answer  them  and  refasten  the  slates. 

"You  will  be  entertaining  your  sitter  by  twitching  and 
jerking  and  making  clairvoyant  and  clairaudient  guesses 
for  him. 

"When  your  assistant  touches  your  foot  you  will  know 
that  he  is  ready  to  make  the  exchange  again,  by  which 
the  sitter  will  get  hold  of  the  slates  he  fastened.  When 
you  get  the  signal  you  give  a  snort  and  jump  that  jerks 
the  end  of  the  slates  from  the  sitter's  hand.  He  is  now 
given  the  end  of  the  slates  held  by  your  assistant,  and 
you  will  allow  the  assistant  to  take  the  dummy.  After 


50  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

sitting  a  moment  or  two  longer,  you  will  tell  the  sitter 
to  take  out  his  slates  and  examine  them  if  he  chooses. 
Many  times  they  do  not  open  the  slates  until  they  reach 
their  homes. 

"This,  reader,  is  the  man  who  will  declare  that  he 
furnished  the  slates  and  did  not  allow  them  out  of  his 
hands  a  minute. 

"The  usual  method  of  obtaining  the  writing  is  for  the 
medium  to  hold  the  slates  alone.  When  this  is  the  case 
the  medium  passes  the  slates  below,  and  receives  in  re- 
turn a  dummy  which  he  is  continually  thumping  on  the 
under  side  of  the  table  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the 
sitter  that  the  slates  are  there  all  the  time. 

"It  is  not  necessary  that  you  should  use  a  cellar  to 
get  this  phase  of  'independent  slate-writing/  You  could 
place  your  table  against  a  partition  door  and  by  fitting 
one  of  the  small  panels  with  hinges  and  bolts,  would 
have  a  very  convenient  way  of  obtaining  the  assistance 
of  the  spirit  in  the  next  room.  It  is  also  possible  to  make 
a  trap  in  a  room  that  has  a  wooden  wainscoting." 

Before  closing  this  brief  survey  of  slate-writing  ex- 
periments, I  must  describe  an  exceedingly  ingenious 
trick,  indeed,  bordering  on  the  marvelous.  It  is  the  re- 
cent invention  of  a  Western  conjurer,  and  solves  the 


SLATE-WRITING.  91 

problem  of  actually  writing  between  locked  slates  by 
physical  means.  The  effect  is  as  follows:  You  request 
the  sitter  to  take  two  slates,  wash  them  carefully,  and  tie 
them  together,  after  first  having  placed  a  bit  of  chalk 
between  their  surfaces.  Hold  them  under  the  table  for 
a  minute,  and  then  hand  them  to  the  sitter  for  examina- 
tion. A  name,  or  a  short  sentence,  in  answer  to  some 
question,  will  be  found  scrawled  across  the  upper  surface 
of  the  bottom  slate.  It  is  accomplished  in  this  way. 
You  take  a  small  pellet  of  iron  or  steel,  coat  it  with  muci- 
lage, and  dip  it  into  chalk  or  slate-pencil  dust.  This 
dust  will  adhere  and  harden  into  a  consistent  mass,  after 
a  little  while,  completely  concealing  the  metal,  and  caus- 
ing the  whole  to  resemble  a  bit  of  chalk.  Take  this  sup- 
posed pellet  of  chalk  from  your  vest  pocket  and  place  it 
between  the  slates;  hold  the  latter  level  beneath  a  table, 
and  by  moving  the  poles  of  a  strong  magnet  against  the 
surface  of  the  under  si?*?,  you  can  cause  the  iron  or  steel 
to  write  a  name  or  sentence,  thanks  to  its  coating  of 
chalk  dust.  It  is  better  to  use  slates  with  rather  deep 
frames,  in  order  that  the  chalked  metal  may  write  with 
facility.  It  requires  considerable  practice  to  write  with 
ease  in  the  manner  described  above.  The  first  thing  of 
course  is  to  locate  the  position  of  the  chalk  between  the 


92  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

locked  slates.  To  enable  you  to  do  this,  place  the  sup- 
posed chalk  in  one  corner  of  slate  No.  1  before  covering 
with  slate  No.  2,  or  else  exactly  in  the  center  of  slate  No. 
2.  In  this  way  you  will  have  no  difficulty  in  affecting 
the  metal  with  the  magnet,  when  the  slates  are  held  un- 
der the  table.  There  are  various  ways  of  holding  the 
slates;  one,  is  to  ask  the  sitter  to  hold  one  end,  while  you 
hold  the  other,  five  or  six  inches  above  the  table.  The 
light  is  put  out,  and  you  take  the  magnet  from  your 
pocket  and  execute  the  writing.  The  noise  of  the  mag- 
net passing  over  the  surface  of  the  under  slate  serves  to 
represent  a  disembodied  spirit  as  doing  the  writing. 


D.  D.  HOME.  93 

2.    The  Master  of  the  Mediums. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  personalities  serving  as  an 
exponent  of  Spiritualism  was  Daniel  Dunglas  Home,  the 
Napoleon  of  necromancy,  and  the  Past  Grand  Master 
of  Mediums.  His  career  reads  like  a  romance.  He 
lived  in  a  sort  of  twilight  land,  and  hob-nobbed  with 
kings,  queens  and  other  people  of  noble  blood. 
"Something  unsubstantial,  ghostly, 

Seems  this  Theurgist, 

In  deep  meditation  mostly 

Wrapped,  as  in  a  mist. 

Vague,  phantasmal  and  unreal, 

To  our  thoughts  he  seems, 

Walking  in  a  world  ideal, 

In  a  land  of  dreams." 

He  wound  his  serpentine  way  into  the  best  society  of 
London,  Paris,  Berlin,  Rome,  and  St.  Petersburg — "al- 
ways despising  filthy  lucre,"  as  Maskelyn  remarks,  "but 
never  refusing  a  diamond  worth  ten  times  the  amount  he 
would  have  received  in  cash,  or  some  present,  which  the 
host  of  the  house  at  which  he  happened  to  be  manifesting 
always  felt  constrained  to  offer." 

This  thaumaturgist  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  was 
born  near  Edinburg,  Scotland,  on  March  20,  1833,  and 


94  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

came  of  a  family  reported  to  be  gifted  with  "second 
sight."  His  father,  William  Home,  was  a  natural  son 
of  Alexander,  tenth  Earl  of  Home.  Strange  phenom- 
ena occurred  during  the  medium's  childhood.  At  the 
age  of  nine  he  was  adopted  by  his  aunt,  Mrs.  McNeill 
Cook,  who  brought  him  to  America.  He  began  giv- 
ing seances  about  the  year  1852.  Among  the  notable 
men  who  attended  these  early  "sittings"  were  William 
Cullen  Bryant,  Professors  Wells  and  Hare,  and  Judge 
Edmonds. 

Home  had  a  tall,  slight  figure,  a  fair  and  freckled  face 
— before  disease  made  it  the  ">lor  of  yellow  wax — keen, 
slaty-blue  eyes,  thin  bloodless  lips,  a  rather  snub  nose, 
and  curly  auburn  hair.  His  manners,  though  forward, 
were  agreeable,  and  he  recited  such  poetry  as  Poe's 
"Raven"  and  "Ulalume"  with  powerful  effect.  He  was 
altogether  a  weird  sort  of  personage.  His  principal  me- 
diumistic  manifestations  were  rappings,  table-tipping, 
ghostly  materializations,  playing  on  sealed  musical  in- 
struments, levitation,  and  handling  fire  with  impunity. 

In  1855  he  launched  his  necromantic  bark  on  Euro- 
pean waters.  No  man  since  Cagliostro  ever  created  so 
profound  a  sensation  in  the  Old  World.  He  wrote  his 
reminiscences  in  two  large  volumes,  but  little  credence 


D.  D.  HOME.  95 

can  be  given  them,  as  they  are  full  of  extravagant  state- 
ments and  wild  fantasies. 

The  London  Punch  (May  9th,  1868),  printed  the  fol- 
lowing effusion  on  the  medium,  a  sort  of  parody  on 
"Home,  Sweet  Home:" 

Through  realms  Thaumaturgic  the  student  may  roam, 
And  nob  light  on  a  worker  of  wonders  like  Home. 
Cagliostro  himself  might  descend  from  his  chair, 
And  set  up  our  Daniel  as  Grand-Cophta  there — 

Home,  Home,  Dan.  Home, 

No  medium  like  Home. 

Spirit  legs,  spirit  hands,  he  gives  table  and  chair; 

Gravitation  defying,  he  flies  in  the  air; 

But  the  fact  to  which  henceforth  his  fame  should  be 

pinned, 
Is  his  power  to  raise,  not  himself  but  the  wind! — 

Home,  Home,  Dan.  Home, 

No  medium  like  Home. 

Robert  Browning  made  him  the  subject  of  his  cele- 
brated satirical  poem,  "Mr.  Sludge,  the  Medium." 

Some  of  the  most  celebrated  scientific  and  literary 
personages  of  England  became  interested  in  his  myster- 
ious abilities,  and  among  his  intimate  friends  were  the 


96  PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA. 

Earl  of  Dunraven,  Mary  Howitt,  Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall,  Prof. 
Wallace,  and  Sir  Edward  Bulwer-Lytton.  There  is 
good  authority  for  believing  that  Home  was 
the  mysterious  Margrave  of  Bulwer's  weird  novel, 
"A  Strange  Story."  Bulwer  was  an  ardent  believer 
in  the  supernatural  and  Home  spent  many  days 
at  Knebworth  amid  a  select  coterie  of  ghost-seers. 
The  famous  novelist  relates  that  as  Home  sat  with 
him  in  the  library  of  Knebworth,  conversing  upon 
politics,  social  matters,  books  or  other  chance  topics,  the 
chairs  rocked  and  the  tables  were  suspended  in  mid-air, 

When  the  medium  was  requested  to  exert  his  power 
and  found  himself  in  condition,  it  is  alleged,  he  would 
riseandrloat  about  the  room.  This  in  Spiritualistic  par- 
lance is  termed  "levitation".  At  Knebworth  and  other 
places,  some  of  the  most  •  prominent  people  of  the  day 
claim  to  have  seen  Home  lift  himself  up  and  sail  tran- 
quilly out  of  a  window,  around  the  house,  and  come  in 
by  another  window. 

The  Earl  of  Dunraven  told  many  stories  equally 
strange  of  performances  that  were  given  in  his  presence. 
The  Earl  declared  that  he  had  many  times  seen  Home 
elongate  and  shorten  his  body,  and  cause  the  closed 
piano  to  play  by  putting  his  fingers  on  the  lid. 


FIG.  7— HOME  AT  THE  TUILEKIES, 


D.  D.  HOME.  99 

In  the  autumn  of  1855  the  famous  medium  went  to 
Florence;  there,  also,  the  spirit  manifestations  secured 
him  the  entree  into  the  best  society  of  the  old  Italian  city. 
In  his  memoirs  he  speaks  of  an  incident  occurring 
through  his  mediumship,  at  a  seance  given  in  Florence: 
"Upon  one  occasion,  while  the  Countess  C —  was  seated 
at  one  of  Erard's  grand-action  pianos,  it  rose  and  bal- 
anced itself  in  the  air,  during  the  whole  time  she  was 
playing."  An  English  lady,  resident  at  Florence,  in  a 
supposed  haunted  house,  procured  the  services  of  Home 
to  exorcise  the  ghost.  They  sat  at  a  table  in  the  sitting- 
room,  and  raps  were  heard  proceeding  from  that  piece 
of  furniture,  and  rustling  sounds  in  the  room  as  of  a  per- 
son moving  about  in  a  heavy  garment.  The  spirit  being 
adjured  in  the  name  of  the  "Holy  Trinity"  to  leave  the 
premises,  the  demonstrations  ceased. 

In  February,  1856,  the  medium  joined  the  retinue  of 
Count  B — ,  a  Polish  nobleman,  and  went  to  Naples  with 
his  patron.  From  Naples  to  Rome  was  the  next  step, 
and,  in  the  Eternal  City,  the  medium  joined  the  Romish 
Church,  and  was  adjured  by  the  Pope  to  abandon  spirit 
stances  forever.  In  1858  we  find  Home  in  St.  Peters- 
burg, where  he  married  the  youngest  daughter  of  Gen- 
eral Count  de  Kroll,of  Russia,  and  a  goddaughter  of  the 


100  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

Emperor  Nicholas,  the  marriage  taking  place  on  Sun- 
day, August  1,  1858,  in  the  private  chapel  attached  to 
the  house  of  the  lady's  brother-in-law,  the  Count  Greg- 
oire  Koucheleff-Besborodko.  It  was  a  very  notable  af- 
fair, and  Alexander  Dumas  came  from  Paris  to  attend 
the  ceremony.  Home's  spirit  power  which  had  left  him 
since  his  conversion  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  now  re- 
turned in  full  force,  it  is  said,  and  he  saw  standing  near 
him  at  the  wedding  the  spirit  form  of  his  mother.  In 
1862  his  wife  died  at  the  Chateau  Laroche,  near  Perig- 
neux,  France,  and  the  medium  repaired  to  Rome  for  the 
purpose  of  studying  sculpture.  The  reports  of  the  spirit 
phenomena  constantly  attending  Home's  presence 
reached  the  ears  of  the  Papal  authorities  and  he  was 
compelled  to  leave  the  city,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
he  gave  positive  assurance  that  he  would  give  no  seance. 
He  was  actually  charged  with  being  a  sorcerer,  like  Cag- 
liostro,  an  accusation  that  reads  very  strange  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century.  This  affair  embittered  Home  against 
the  Church,  and  he  abandoned  Roman  Catholicism  for 
the  Greek  Church. 

After  the  Roman  fiasco,  the  famous  medium  returned 
to  England  to  give  Spiritualistic  lectures  and  stances.  A 
writer  in  "All  the  Year  Round",  gives  the  following  pen 


D.  D.  HOME.  101 

picture  of  the  medium,  as  he  appeared  in  1866:  "He  is 
a  tall,  thin  man,  with  broad  square  shoulders,  suggest- 
ive of  a  suit  of  clothes  hung  upon  an  iron  cross.  His 
hair  is  long  and  yellow;  his  teeth  are  large,  glittering 
and  sharp ;  his  eyes  are  a  pale  grey,  with  a  redness  about 
the  eye-lids,  which  comes  and  goes  in  a  ghastly  manner, 
as  he  talks.  When  he  shows  his  glittering  sharp  teeth, 
and  that  red  line  comes  round  his  slowly  rolling  eyes, 
he  is  not  a  pleasant  sight  to  look  upon.  His  hands 
are  long,  white  and  bony,  and  on  taking  them 
you  discover  that  they  are  icy  cold."  A  suit  of  clothes 
hung  upon  an  iron  cross  is  a  weird  touch  in  this  pen 
picture. 

Home  about  this  time  intended  going  upon  the  stage, 
but  abandoned  the  idea  to  become  the  secretary  of  the 
"Spiritual  Atheneum",  a  society  formed  for  the  investi- 
gation of  psychic  phenomena. 

One  of  the  most  notable  passages  in  the  life  of  the 
great  medium  was  the  famous  law  suit  in  which  he  was 
concerned  in  England.  In  1866  he  became  acquainted 
with  a  wealthy  lady,  Mrs.  Jane  Lyons.  In  his  role  of 
medium  she  consulted  him  constantly  about  the  welfare 
of  her  husband  in  the  spirit  world,  and  her  business  af- 
fairs. She  gave  him  £33,000  for  his  services.  Rela- 


102  PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA. 

tives  and  friends  of  Mrs.  Lyons,  however,  saw  in  Home 
a  cunning  adventurer  who  was  preying  upon  a  weak- 
minded  woman.  A  suit  was  instituted  against  the  medi- 
um to  recover  the  money,  and  the  case  became  a  cause 
cclebre  in  the  annals  of  the  English  courts. 

In  the  autumn  of  1871,  Home,  who  before  that  time, 
had  been  quite  a  "lion"  at  the  court  of  Napoleon  III  and 
Eugene,  followed  the  German  army  from  Sedan  to  Ver- 
sailles, and  was  hand-in-glove  with  the  King  of  Prussia. 
His  second  marriage  took  place  in  October,  1871,  at 
Paris,  and  after  a  brief  honeymoon  in  England  he  visited 
St.  Petersburg  with  his  wife,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
noble  Russian  family  of  Alsakoff. 

On  the  21st  of  June,  1886,  the  great  American  ghost- 
seer  died  of  consumption,  at  Auteuil,near  Paris,  France. 
For  years  he  was  out  of  health,  and  he  ascribed  his  weak- 
ness to  the  expenditure  of  vital  force  in  working  wonders 
during  the  earlier  part  of  his  career. 

He  was  buried  at  St.  Germain-en-Laye,  with  the 
rites  of  the  Russian  Church.  The  funeral  was  a  very 
simple  one,  not  more  than  twenty  persons  being  present, 
all  of  whom  were  in  full  evening  dress.  The  idea  was  to 
emphasize  the  Spiritualists'  belief  that  death  is  not  a 


D.  D.  HOME.  103 

subject  for  mourning,  but  is  liberation,  an  occasion  for 
rejoicing. 

The  curious  reader  will  find  many  accounts  of  Home's 
invulnerability  to  fire  while  in  the  trance  state,  notably 
those  of  Prof.  Crookes,  contained  in  the  proceedings  of 
the  Society  for  Psychical  Research.  In  the  March,  1868, 
number  of  "Human  .Nature"  Mr.  H.  D.  Jencken  writes 
as  follows  concerning  a  seance  given  by  the  medium : 

"Mr.  Home,  (after  various  manifestations)  said,  'we 
have  gladly  shown  you  our  power  over  fluids,  we  will 
now  show  you  our  power  over  solids.'  He  then  knelt 
down  before  the  hearth,  and  deliberately  breaking  up  a 
glowing  piece  of  coal  in  the  fire  place,  took  up  a  largish 
lump  of  incandescent  coal  and  placing  'the  same  in  his 
left  hand,  proceeded  to  explain  that  caloric  had  been  ex- 
tracted by  a  process  known  to  them  (the  spirits),  and 
that  the  heat  could  in  part  be  returned.  This  he  proved 
by  alternately  cooling  and  heating  the  coal;  and  to  con- 
vince us  of  the  fact,  allowed  us  to  handle  the  coal  which 
had  become  cool,  then  suddenly  resumed  its  heat  suffi- 
cient to  burn  one,  as  I  again  touched  it.  I  examined  Mr. 
Home's  hand,  and  quite  satisfied  myself  that  no  artificial 
means  had  been  employed  to  protect  the  skin,  which  did 
not  even  retain  the  smell  of  smoke.  Mr.  Home  then  re- 


104  PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA. 

seated  himself,  and  shortly  awoke  from  his  trance  quite 
pale  and  exhausted." 

Other  witnesses  of  the  above  experiment  were  Lord 
Lindsay,  Lord  Adare,  Miss  Douglas, Mr.  S.  C.  Hall,  Mr. 
W.  H.  Harrison  and  Prof.  Wallace.  Mr.  H.  Nisbet,  of 
Glasgow,,  relates  (Human  Nature,  Feb.  1870)  that  in  his 
own  home  in  January,  1870,  Mr.  Home  took  a  red  hot 
coal  from  the  grate  and  put  it  in  the  hands  of  a  lady  and 
gentleman  to  whom  it  felt  only  warm.  Subsequently  he 
placed  the  same  on  a  folded  newspaper,  the  result  being 
a  hole  burnt  through  eight  layers  of  paper.  Taking  an- 
other blazing  coal  he  laid  it  on  the  same  journal,  and 
carried  it  around  the  apartment  for  upwards  of  three 
minutes,  without  scorching  the  paper. 

Among  the  crowned  heads  and  famous  people  before 
whom  Mr:  Home  appeared  were  Napoleon  III  and  the 
Empress  Eugenie,  Queen  Victoria,  King  Louis  I  and 
King  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  the  Emperor  of  Russia, 
the  King  and  Queen  of  Wurtemberg,  the  Duchess  of 
Hamilton,  the  CrownPrince  of  Prussia  and  old  Gen.  Von 
Moltke.  Alexander  Dumas  the  elder,  was  a  constant 
companion  of  the  medium  for  a  long  time,  and  wrote 
columns  about  him. 

Napoleon  III  had  two  sittings  with  Home — and  it  is 


D.  D.  HOME.  105 

said  Home  materialized  the  spirit  of  the  first  Napoleon, 
who  appeared  in  his  familiar  cocked  hat,  gray  overcoat 
and  dark  green  uniform  with  white  facings.  "My  fate?" 
asked  Louis,  trembling  with  awe.  "Like  mine — dis- 
crowned, and  death  in  exile,"  replied  the  ghost;  then  it 
vanished.  The  Empress  swooned  and  Napoleon  III 
fell  back  in  his  chair  as  if  about  to  faint.  The  medium 
in  his  first  seance  with  the  French  Emperor  succeeded 
only  in  materializing  some  flowers  and  a  spirit  hand, 
which  the  Emperor  was  permitted  to  grasp. 

Celia  Logan,  the  journalist,  in  writing  of  one  of 
Home's  s  ances  at  a  nobleman's  house  in  London,  says: 

"On  .this  occasion  the  medium  announced  that,  he 
would  produce  balls  of  fire  and  illuminated  hands.  Fail- 
ing in  the  former,  he  declared  that  the  spirits  were  not 
strong  enough  for  that  to-night,  and  so  he  would  have 
to  confine  himself  to  showing  the  luminous  hands. 

"The  house  was  darkened  and  Home  groped  his  way 
alone  to  the  head  of  the  broad  staircase,  where  every  few 
minutes  a  pair  of  luminous  hands  were  thrown  up.  The 
audience  was  satisfied  generally.  One  lady,  however, 
was  not,  and  whispered  to  me — she  was  a  half-hearted 
Spiritualist — that  it  looked  to  her  as  if  he  had  rubbed  his 
own  hands  over  with  lucifer  matches, 


Io6  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

"The  host  stood  near  the  mantel  piece  and  had  seen 
Home  abstractedly  place  a  small  bottle  upon  it  when 
he  left  the  room  for  the  staircase.  That  bottle  the 'host 
quietly  slipped  into  his  pocket.  Upon  examination  the 
next  day  it  was  found  to  contain  phosphorated  olive  oil 
or  some  similar  preparation. 

"The  host  had  declared  himself  to  have  seen  Home 
float  through  the  air  from  one  side  of  the  room  to  the 
other,  lift  a  piano  several  feet  in  the  air  by  simply  plac- 
ing a  finger  upon  it,  and  had  seen  him  materialize 
disembodied  spirits;  but  after  the  discovery  of  the 
phosphorus  trick  he  dropped  Home  at  once." 

It  is  a  significant*  fact  that  the  medium  while  giving 
stances  in  Paris  in  1857  refused  to  meet  Houdin,  the 
renowned  prestidigitateur. 

I  shall  now  attempt  an  expose  of  Home's  physical 
phenomena.  Home's  extraordinary  feat  of  alternately 
cooling  and  heating  a  lump  of  coal  taken  from  a  blazing 
fire,  as  related  by  Mr.  H.  D.  Jencken  and  others,  is  easily 
explained.  It  is  a  juggling  trick.  The  "coal"  is  a  piece 
of  spongy  platinum  which  bears  a  close  resemblance  to 
a  lump  of  half  burnt  coal,  and  is  palmed  in  the  hand,  as 
a  prestidigitateur  conceals  a  coin,  a  pack  of  cards,  an 
egg,  or  a  small  lemon.  The  medium  or  magician  ad- 


D.  D.  HOME.  107 

vances  to  the  grate  and  pretends  to  take  a  genuine  lump 
of  coal  from  the  fire  but  brings  up  instead,  at>  the  tips  of 
his  fingers,  the  piece  of  platinum.  In  a  secret  breast 
pocket  of  his  coat  he  has  a  small  reservoir  of  hydrogen, 
with  a  tube  coming  down  the  sleeve  and  terminating  an 
inch  or  so  above  the  cuff.  By  means  of  certain  mechani- 
cal arrangements,  to  enable  him  to  let  on  and  off  the  gas 
at  the  proper  moment,  he  is  able  to  accomplish  the  trick ; 
for  when  a  current  of  hydrogen  is  allowed  to  impinge 
upon  a  piece  of  spongy  platinum,  the  metal  becomes  in- 
candescent, and  as  soon  as  the  current  is  arrested  the 
platinum  is  restored  to  its  normal  condition. 

The  hand  may  be  protected  from  burning  in  vari- 
ous ways,  one  method  being  the  repeated  appli- 
cation of  sulphuric  acid  to  the  skin,  whereby  it 
is  rendered  impervious  to  the  action  of  fire  for 
a  short  period  of  time  ;  another,  by  wearing 
gloves  of  amianthus  or  asbestos  cloth.  With  the 
latter,  worn  in  a  badly  lighted  room,  the  medium,  with- 
out much  risk  of  discovery,  can  handle  red  hot  coals  or 
iron  with  impunity.  The  gloves  may  at  the  proper 
moment  be  slipped  off  and  concealed  about  the  person. 
A  small  slip  of  amianthus  cloth  placed  on  a  newspaper 
would  protect  it  from  a  hot  coal  and  the  same  means 


108  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

could  be  used  when  a  coal  is  placed  in  another's  hand  or 
upon  his  head. 

As  to  the  marvelous  "levitation",  either  the  witnesses 
of  the  alleged  feat  were  under  some  hypnotic  spell,  or 
else  they  allowed  their  imaginations  to  run  riot  when 
describing  the  event.  In  the  case  of  Lord  Lindsay  and 
Lord  Adare,  D.  Carpenter  in  his  valuable  paper  "On  Fal- 
lacies Respecting  the  Supernatural"  (Contemporary  Re- 
view, Jan.,  1876)  says:  "A  whole  party  of  believers  af- 
firm that  they  saw  Mr.  Home  float  out  of  one  window 
and  in  at  another,  while  a  single  honest  skeptic  declares 
that  Mr.  Home  was  sitting  in  his  chair  all  the  time." 
It  seems  that  there  were  three  gentlemen  present  besides 
the  medium  when  the  alleged  phenomenon  took  place, 
the  two  noblemen  and  a  ''cousin".  It  is  this  unnamed 
hard-headed  cousin  to  whom  Dr.  Carpenter  refers  as 
the  "honest  skeptic." 

Many  of  Home's  admirers  have  declared  that  he  pos- 
sessed the  power  of  mesmerizing  certain  of  his  friends. 
These  gentlemen  were  no  doubt  hypnotized  and  related 
honestly  what  they  believed  they  had  seen.  Again,  the 
expectancy  of  attention  and  the  nervous  tension  of  the 
average  sitter  in  spirit-circles  tend  to  produce  a  morbidly 
impressible  condition  of  mind.  Many  mediums  since 


D.  D.  HOME.  109 

Home's  day  have  performed  the  act  of  levitation,  but  al- 
ways in  a  dark  room.  Mr.  Angelo  Lewis,  the  writer  on 
magic,  reveals  an  ingenious  method  by  which  levitation 
is  effected.  When  the  lights  are  extinguished  the  medi- 
um—  who,  by  the  way,  must  be  a  clever  ventriloquist — 
removes  his  boots  and  places  them  on  his  hands. 

"I  am  rising,  I  am  rising,  but  pay  no  attention",  he 
remarks,  as  he  goes  about  the  apartment,  where  the 
sitters  are  grouped  in  a  circle  about  him,  and  he  lightly 
touches  the  heads  of  various  persons.  A  shadowy  form 
is  dimly  seen  and  a  smell  of  boot  leather  becomes  ap- 
parent to  the  olfactory  senses  of  many  present.  People 
jump  quickly  to  conclusions  in  such  matters  and  argue 
that  where  the  feet  of  the  medium  are,  his  body  must 
surely  be — namely,  floating  in  the  air.  The  illusion  is 
further  enhanced  by  the  performers  ventriloquial  powers. 
"I  am  rising!  I  am  touching  the  ceiling!"  he  exclaims, 
imitating  the  sound  of  a  voice  high  up.  When  the  lights 
are  turned  up,  the  medium  is  seen  (this  time  with  his 
boots  on  his  feet)  standing  on  tip-toe,  as  if  just  descended 
from  the  ceiling. 

Sometimes  before  performing  the  levitation  act,  he  will 
say,  "In  order  to  convince  any  skeptic  present,  that  I 
really  float  upwards,  I  will  write  the  initials  of  my  name, 


HO  PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA. 

or  the  name  of  some  one  present,  on  the  ceiling."  When 
the  lights  are  raised,  the  letters  are  seen  written  on  the 
ceiling  in  a  bold  scrawling  hand.  How  is  it  done?  The 
medium  has  concealed  about  him  a  telescopic  steel  rod, 
something  like  those  Chinese  fishing  rods  at  one  time  in 
vogue  among  modern  disciples  of  Izaak  Walton.  This 
convenient  rod  when  not  in  use  folds  up  in  a  very  small 
compass,  but  when  it  is  shoved  out  to  its  full  length, 
some  three  or  four  feet,  with  a  bit  of  black  chalk  at- 
tached, the  writing  on  the  ceiling  is  easily  produced. 
The  magicians  of  ancient  Egypt  displayed  their  mystic 
rods  as  a  part  of  their  paraphernalia,  while  the  modern 
magi  bear  theirs  in  secret.  A  tambourine,  a  guitar,  a  bell, 
or  a  spirit  hand,  rubbed  with  phosphorus,  may  also  be 
fixed  to  this  ingenious  appliance,  and  floated  over  the 
heads  of  the  spectators,  and  even  a  horn  may  be  blown, 
through  the  hollow  rod. 

The  materialization  of  a  spirit  hand  which  crept  from 
beneath  a  table-cover,  and  showed  itself  to  the  "be- 
lievers/' was  one  of  the  most  startling  things  in  the  rep- 
ertoire of  D.  D.  Home,  as  it  was  in  that  of  Dr. 
Monck's,  an  English  medium.  An  explanation  of 
Monck's  method  of  producing  the  hand  may,  per- 
haps, throw  some  light  on  Home's  "materializa- 


D.  D.  HOME.  Ill 

tion."  A  small  dummy  hand,  artistically  ex- 
ecuted in  wax,  with  the  fingers  slightly  bent,  is 
fastened  to  a  broad  elastic  band  about  three  feet  in 
length.  This  band  is  attached  to  a  belt  about  the  per- 
former's waist  and  passes  down  his  left  trouser  leg,  al- 
lowing the  hand  to  dangle  within  the  trouser  a  few 
inches  above  the  ankle.  I  must  not  forget  to  explain 
that  to  the  wrist  of  the  hand  is  appended  an  elastic  sleeve 
about  five  inches  long.  The  medium  and  two  sitters 
take  their  seats  at  a  square  table,  with  an  over-hanging 
table-cloth.  No  one  is  allowed  to  be  seated  at  the  same 
side  of  the  table  with  the  medium.  This  is  an  imperative 
condition. 

"Dimmish  the  light,  please,"  says  the  medium.  Some 
one  rises  to  lower  the  gas  to  the  required  dim  religious 
light  necessary  to  all  spirit  seances.  "A  little  lower, 
please!  Lower,  lower  still!"  remarks  the  medium.  Out 
the  light  goes.  "Dear,  me,  but  this  is  vexatious!  Some- 
body light  it  again  and  be  more  careful!"  he  ejaculates. 
Under  cover  of  the  darkness  the  agile  operator  crosses 
his  left  foot  over  his  right  knee,  pulls  down  the  wax 
hand  and  fixes  it  to  the  toe  of  his  boot  by  means  of  the 
elastic  sleeve,  the  apparatus  being  masked  from  the  sit- 
ters by  the  table  cloth  until  the  time  comes  for  the  spirit 


II2  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

materialization.  The  three  men  place  their  hands  on  the 
table  and  wait  patiently  for  developments.  Presently  a 
rap  is  heard  under  the  table — disjointed  knee  of  the  med- 
ium,— and  then  mirabile  dictu!  the  table-cloth  shakes  and 
a  delicate  female  hand  emerges  and  shows  itself  above 
the  edge  of  the  table.  A  guitar  being  placed  close  to  the 
fingers,  they  soon  strum  the  strings,  or  rather  appear 
to  do  so,  the  medium  being  the  deus  ex  machina.  The 
cleverest  part  of  the  whole  performance  is  the  fact  that 
the  medium  never  takes  his  hands  from  the  table.  He 
quietly  puts  his  left  foot  down  on  the  floor  and  places  his 
right  foot  heavily  on  the  false  hand — off  it  comes  from 
the  left  foot  and  shoots  up  the  trouser  leg  like  lightning. 
The  sitters  may  look  under  the  table  but  they  see 
nothing. 

An  ingenious  improvement  has  been  made  to  this 
hand-test  by  an  American  conjurer,  one  that  enables  the 
medium  to  produce  the  hand  although  his  feet  are  se- 
cured by  the  sitter.  "Be  kind  enough,  sir/'  says  the  per- 
former to  the  investigator,  "to  place  your  feet  on  mine. 
If  I  should  move  my  feet  ever  so  little,  you  would  know 
it,  would  you  not?"  The  sitter  replies  in  the  affirma- 
tive. The  medium,  as  soon  as  he  feels  the  pressure  of 
the  sitter's  feet,  withdraws  his  right  foot  from  a  steel 


D.  D.  HOME.  113 

shape  made  in  imitation  of  the  toe  of  his  boot,  and  oper- 
ates the  spirit  hand  at  his  leisure.  After  the  sitting,  he 
of  course,  inserts  his  right  foot  into  the  shape  and  carries 
it  off  with  him. 

The  production  of  spirit  music  was  one  of  Home's 
favorite  experiments.  There  are  all  sorts  of  ways  of 
producing  this  music,  the  most  ingenious  of  which  I 
give: 

The  apparatus  consists  of  a  small  circular  musical 
box,  wound  up  by  clock  woik,  and  made  to  play  when- 
ever pressure  is  put  upon  a  stud  projecting  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  from  its  surface.  This  box  is  strapped 
around  the  right  leg  of  the  medium  just  above  his 
knee,  and  hidden  beneath  the  trouser  leg.  When  not 
in  use  it  is  on  the  under  side  of  the  leg.  On  the  table 
a  musical  box  is  placed  and  covered  with  a  soup 
tureen,  or  the  top  of  a  chafing  dish.  When  the  spec- 
tators are  seated,  the  medium  works  the  concealed 
musical  box  around  to  the  upper  part  of  his  leg  near 
the  knee  cap,  and  by  pressing  the  stud  against  the 
under  surface  of  the  table,  starts  the  music  playing. 
In  this  way  the  second  musical  box  seems  to  play  and 
the  acoustic  effect  is  perfect.  Perhaps  Home  used  a 


114  PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA. 

similar  contrivance;  Dr.  Monck  did,  and  was  caught 
in  the  act  by  the  chief  of  the  Detective  Police. 

Home  during  his  seances  on  the  Continent  of  Eu- 
rope was  accused  of  all  sorts  of  trickery.  Some  as- 
serted that  he  had  concealed  about  him  a  small  but 
powerful  electric  battery  for  producing  certain  il- 
lusions, mechanical  contrivances  attached  to-  his  legs 
for  making  spirit  raps,  and  last  but  not  least,  as  the 
medium  states  in  his  "Memoirs:"  "they  even  accused  me 
of  carrying  a  small  monkey  about  with  me,  concealed, 
trained  to  perform  all  sorts  of  ghostly  tricks." 

People  also  accused  him  of  obtaining  a  great  deal 
of  his  information  about  the  spirits  of  the  departed 
from  tombstones  like  an  Old  Mortality,  and  bribing 
family  servants.  A  more  probable  explanation  may  be 
found  perhaps  in  telepathy. 

There  is  one  more  phase  of  Home's  mediumship, 
the  moving  of  heavy  pieces  of  furniture  without  phy- 
sical contact,  that  must  be  spoken  of.  In  mentioning 
it,  Dr.  Max  Dessoir,  author  of  the  "Psychology  of 
Conjuring,"*  says:  "We  must  admit  that  a  few 
feats,  such  as  those  of  Prof.  Crookes  with  Home,  con- 
cerning the  possibility  of  setting  inanimate  objects  in 

"Introduction  to  Herrmann  the  Magician,  his  "Life,  his  Secrets, 

(Laird  &  I,ee,  Publishers.) 


CROOKES'  EXPERIMENTS.  115 

motion  without  touching  them,  appear  to  lie  entirely 
outside  the  sphere  of  jugglery."     In  the  year  1871, 
Prof.   William   Crookes,   (now   Sir  William    Crookes) 
Fellow    of    the     Royal     Society,     a     very    eminent 
scientist,    subjected    Home    to    some    elaborate    tests 
in     order     to     prove      or     disprove    by     means     of 
scientific    apparatus    the  *  reality    of    phenomena    con- 
nected with  variations  in  the  weight  of  bodies,  with  or 
without  contact.     He  declared  the  tests  to  be  entirely 
satisfactory,  but  ascribed  the  phenomena  not  to  spirit- 
ual agency,  but  to  a  new  force,  "in  some  unknown 
manner    connected    with    the    human    organization," 
which  for  convenience  he  called  the  "Psychic  Force." 
He  said  in  his  "Reseaches  in  the  Phenomena  of  Spirit- 
ualism:"   "Of  all  the  persons  endowed  with  a  powerful 
development  of  this  Psychic   Force,  and  who  have 
been  termed  'mediums'  upon  quite  another  theory  of  its 
origin,   Mr.   Daniel   Dunglas   Home   is   the   most  re- 
markable, and  it  is  mainly  owing  to  the  many  oppor- 
tunities I  have  had  of  carrying  on  my  investigations 
in  his  presence  that  I  am  enabled  to  affirm  so  con- 
clusively the  existence  of  this  force."     Prof.  Crookes' 
experiments  were  conducted,  as  he  says,  in  the  full 
light,  and  in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  among  them 


Il6  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

being  the  famous  English  barrister,  Sergeant  Cox, 
and  the  astronomer,  Dr.  Huggins.  Heavy  articles 
became  light  and  light  articles  heavy  when  the  me- 
dium came  near  them.  In  some  cases  he  lightly 
touched  them,  in  others  refrained  from  contact. 

The  first  piece  of  the   apparatus   constructed  by 


FIG.  8.      CROOKES'   APPARATUS. 

Crookes  to  test  this  psychic  force  consisted  of  a  ma- 
hogany board  36  inches  long  by9j  inches  wide  and  1 
inch  thick.  A  strip  of  mahogany  was  screwed  on  at 
one  end,  to  form  a  foot,  the  length  being  equal  to  the 
width  of  the  board.  This  end  of  the  board  was  placed 
on  a  table,  while  the  other  end  was  upheld  by  a  spring 


CROOKES'  EXPERIMENTS.  117 

balance,  fastened  to  a  strong  tripod  stand,  as  will  be 
seen  in  Fig.  8. 

"Mr.  Home,"  writes  Prof.  Crookes,  "placed  the  tips 
of  his  fingers  lightly  on  the  extreme  end  of  the  ma- 
hogany board  which  was  resting  on  the  support, 
whilst  Dr.  A.  B.  [Dr.  Muggins]  and  myself  sat,  one 
on  each  side  of  it,  watching  for  any  effect  which 
might  be  produced.  Almost  immediately  the  pointer 
of  the  balance  was  seen  to  descend.  After  a  few  sec- 
onds it  rose  again.  This  movement  was  repeated 
several  times,  as  if  by  successive  waves  of  the  psychic 
force.  The  end  of  the  board  was  observed  to  oscil- 
late slowly  up  and  down  during  the  experiment. 

"Mr.  Home  now,  of  his  own  accord,  took  a  small 
hand-bell  and  a  little  card  match-box,  which  hap- 
pened to  be  near,  and  placed  one  under  each  hand,  to 
satisfy  us,  as  he  said,  that  he  was  not  producing  the 
downward  pressure.  The  very  slow  oscillation  of  the 
spring  balance  became  more  marked,  and  Dr.  A.  B., 
watching  the  index,  said  that  he  saw  it  descend  to  6J 
Ibs.  The  normal  weight  of  the  board  as  so  sus- 
pended being  3  Ibs.,  the  additional  downward  pull  was 
therefore  3J  Ibs.  On  looking  immediately  afterwards 
at  the  automatic  register,  we  saw  that  the  index 


Il8  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

had  at  one  time  descended  as  low  as  9  Ibs.,  showing  a 
maximum  pull  of  6  Ibs.  upon  a  board  whose  normal 
weight  was  3  Ibs. 

"In  order  to  see  whether  it  was  possible  to  produce 
much  effect  on  the  spring  balance  by  pressure  at  the 
place  where  Mr.  Home's  fingers  had  been,  I  stepped 
upon  the  table  and  stood  on  one  foot  at  the  end  of  the 
board.  Dr.  A.  B.,  who  was  observing  the  index  of 
the  balance,  said  that  the  whole  weight  of  my  body 
(140  Ibs.)  so  applied  only  sunk  the  index  1J  Ibs.,  or  2 
Ibs.  when  I  jerked  up  and  down.  Mr.  Home  had  been 
sitting  in  a  low  easy-chair,  and  could  not,  therefore, 
had  he  tried  his  utmost,  have  exerted  any  material  in- 
fluence on  these  results.  I  need  scarcely  add  that  his 
feet  as  well  as  his  hands  were  closely  guarded  by  all 
in  the  room." 

The  next  series  of  experiments  is  thus  described: 
"On  trying  these  experiments  for  the  first  time,  I 
thought  that  actual  contact  between  Mr.  Home's 
hands  and  the  suspended  body  whose  weight  was  to 
be  altered  was  essential  to  the  exhibition  of  the  force; 
but  I  found  afterwards  that  this  was  not  a  necessary 
condition,  and  I  therefore  arranged  my  apparatus  in 
the  following  manner: — 


CROOKES*  EXPERIMENTS.  lit, 

"The  accompanying  cuts  (Figs.  9,  10  and  11)  explain 
the  arrangement.  Fig.  9  is  a  general  view,  and  Figs. 
10  and  11  show  the  essential  parts  more  in  detail.  The 
reference  letters  are  the  same  in  each  illustration.  A 
B  is  a  mahogany  board,  36  inches  long  by  9£  inches 
wide,  and  1  inch  thick.  It  is  suspended  at  the  end, 
B,  by  a  spring  balance,  C,  furnished  with  an  automatic 


FIG.  9.      CROOKES'   APPARATUS. 

register,  D.     The  balance  is  suspended  from  a  very 
firm  tripod  support,  E. 

"The  following  piece  of  apparatus  is  not  shown  in 
the  figures.  To  the  moving  index,  O,  of  the  spring 
balance,  a  fine  steel  point  is  soldered,  projecting  hori- 
zontally outwards.  In  front  of  the  balance,  and 
firmly  fastened  to  it,  is  a  grooved  frame,  carry- 


120 


PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 


FIG.  10.     CROOKES'  APPARATUS. 

ing  a  flat  box  similar  to  the  dark  box  of  a  photo- 
graphic camera.  This  box  is  made  to  travel  by 
clock-work  horizontally  in  front  of  the  moving  index, 
and  it  contains  a  sheet  of  plate-glass  which  has  been 
smoked  over  a  flame.  The  projecting  steel  point  im- 
presses a  mark  on  this  smoked  surface.  If  the  bal- 
ance is  at  rest,  and  the  clock  set  going,  the  result  is  a 
perfectly  straight  horizontal  line.  If  the  clock  is 
stopped  and  weights  are  placed  on  the  end,  B,  of 
the  board,  the  result  is  a  vertical  line,  whose  length 
depends  on  the  weight  applied.  If,  whilst  the  clock 
draws  the  plate  along,  the  weight  of  the  board  (or  the 
tension  on  the  balance)  varies,  the  result  is  a  curved 


CROOKES'   EXPERIMENTS.  J2i 

line,  from  which  the  tension  in  grains  at  any  moment 
during  the  continuance  of  the  experiments  can  be 
calculated. 

'The  instrument  was  capable  of  registering  a  di- 
minution of  the  force  of  gravitation  as  well  as  an  in- 
crease; registrations  of  such  a  diminution  were  fre- 
quently obtained.  To  avoid  complication,  however, 
I  will  here  refer  only  to  results  in  which  an  increase  of 
gravitation  was  experienced. 


FIG.   II.     CROOKES'  APPARATUS. 


"The  end,  B,  of  the  board  being  supported  by  the 
spring  balance,  the  end,  A,  is   supported  on  a  wooden 


122  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

strip,  F,  screwed  across  its  lower  side  and  cut  to  a 
knife  edge  (see  Fig.  11).  This  fulcrum  rests  on  a  firm  and 
heavy  wooden  stand,  G  H.  On  the  board,  exactly  over 
the  fulcrum,  is  placed  a  large  glass  vessel  filled  with 
water.  I  L  is  a  massive  iron  stand,  furnished  with 
an  arm  and  a  ring,  M  N,  in  which  rests  a  hemispheri- 
cal copper  vessel  perforated  with  several  holes  at  the 
bottom. 

"The  iron  stand  is  2  inches  from  the  board,  A  B, 
and  the  arm  and  copper  vessel,  M  N,  are  so  adjusted 
that  the  latter  dips  into  the  water  1J  inches,  being  5-J 
inches  from  the  bottom  of  I,  and  2  inches  from  its  cir- 
cumference. Shaking  or  striking  the  arm,  M,  or  the 
vessel,  N,  produces  no  appreciable  mechanical  effect 
on  the  board,  A  B,  capable  of  affecting  the  balance. 
Dipping  the  hand  to  the  fullest  extent  into  the  water 
in  N  does  not  produce  the  least  appreciable  action  on 
the  balance. 

"As  the  mechanical  transmission  of  power  is  by  this 
means  entirely  cut  off  between  the  copper  vessel  and 
the  board,  A  B,  the  power  of  muscular  control  is 
thereby  completely  eliminated. 

"For  convenience  I  will  divide  the  experiments  into 
groups,  1,  2,  3,  etc.,  and  I  have  selected  one  special 


CROOKES'  EXPERIMENTS.  123 

instance  in  each  to  describe  in  detail.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, is  mentioned  which  has  not  been  repeated  more 
than  once,  and  in  some  cases  verified,  in  Mr.  Home's 
absence,  with  another  person,  possessing  similar  pow- 
ers. 

"There  was  always  ample  light  in  the  room  where 
the  experiments  were  conducted  (my  own  dining- 
room)  to  see  all  that  took  place. 

"Experiment  I. — The  apparatus  having  been  prop- 
erly adjusted  before  Mr.  Home  entered  the  room,  he 
was  brought  in,  and  asked  to  place  his  fingers  in  the 
water  in  the  copper  vessel,  N.  He  stood  up  and 
dipped  the  tips  of  the  fingers  of  his  right  hand  in  the 
water,  his  other  hand  and  his  feet  being  held.  When 
he  said  he  felt  a  power,  force,  or  influence,  proceeding 
from  his  hand,  I  set  the  clock  going,  and  almost  im- 
mediately the  end,  B,  of  the  board  was  seen  to  descend 
slowly  and  remain  down  for  about  10  seconds;  it  then 
descended  a  little  further,  and  afterwards  rose  to  its 
normal  height.  It  then  descended  again,  rose  sud- 
denly, gradually  sunk  for  17  seconds,  and  finally  rose 
to  its  normal  height,  where  it  remained  till  the  ex- 
periment was  concluded.  The  lowest  point  marked 
on  the  glass  was  equivalent  to  a  direct  pull  of  about 


124  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

5,000  grains.     The  accompanying  Figure  12  is  a  copy 
of  the  curve  traced  on  the  glass. 

"Experiment  II. — Contact  through  water  having 
proved  to  be  as  effectual  as  actual  mechanical  con- 
tact, I  wished  to  see  if  the  power  or  force  could  affect 
the  weight,  either  through  other  portions  of  the  ap- 
paratus or  through  the  air.  The  glass  vessel  and  iron 
stand,  etc.,  were  therefore  removed,  as  an  unnecessary 
complication,  and  Mr.  Home's  hands  were  placed  on  the 


SCALE  OF  SECONDS. 
5          18  to  SO  A9 


SO  «• 


FIG.  12.   DIAGRAM  SHOWING  TENSION  IN  CROOKES'  APPARATUS  UNDER 
THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HOME. 


stand  of  the  apparatus  at  P  (Fig.  9).  A  gentleman  present 
put  his  hand  on  Mr.  Home's  hands,  and  his  foot  on 
both  Mr.  Home's  feet,  and  I  also  watched  him 
closely  all  the  time.  At  the  proper  moment  the  clock 
was  again  set  going;  the  board  descended  and  rose  in 
an  irregular  manner,  the  result  being  a  curved  tracing 
on  the  glass,  of  which  Fig.  13  is  a  copy. 


CROOKES  EXPERIMENTS. 

SCALE  THB  SAME  AS  IN  FIG.  12. 


FIG.  13.   DIAGRAM  SHOWING  TENSION  IN  CROOKES'  APPARATUS  UNDER 
THB  INFLUENCE  OF  HOME. 

"Experiment  III. — Mr.  Home  was  now  placed  one 
foot  from  the  board,  A  B,  on  one  side  of  it.  His 
hands  and  feet  were  firmly  grasped  by  a  by-stander, 
and  another  tracing,  of  which  Fig.  14  is  a  copy,  was 
taken  on  the  moving  glass  plate. 

SCALE  THE  SAME  AS  IN  FIG.  12. 


FIG.  14.      DIAGRAM   SHOWING    TENSION    IN  CROOKES'   APPARATUS  UNDER 
HOME'S  INFLUENCE. 

"Experiment  IV. — (Tried  on  an  occasion  when  the 
power  was  stronger  than  on  the  previous  occasions), 
Mr.  Home  was  now  placed  3  feet  from  the  appara- 
tus, his  hands  and  feet  being  tightly  held.  The  clock 
was  set  going  when  he  gave  the  word,  and  the  end,  B, 

SCALE  THE  SAME  AS  IN  FIG.  12. 


FIG.   15.       DIAGRAM    SHOWING    TENSION  IN  CROOKES'    APPARATUS  UNDER 
HOME'S  INFLUENCE. 


126  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

of  the  board  soon  descended,  and  again  rose  in  an  ir- 
regular manner,  as  shown  in  Fig.  15. 

'The  following  series  of  experiments  were  tried 
with  more  delicate  apparatus,  and  with  another  per- 
son, a  lady,  Mr.  Home  being  absent.  As  the  lady  is 
non-professional,  I  do  not  mention  her  name.  She 
has,  however,  consented  to  meet  any  scientific  men 
whom  I  may  introduce  for  purposes  of  investigation. 

"A  piece  of  thin  parchment,  A,  (Figs.  16  and  17),  is 
stretched  tightly  across  a  circular  hoop  of  wood.  B 
C  is  a  light  lever  turning  on  D.  At  the  end  B  is  a 
vertical  needle  point  touching  the  membrane  A,  and 
at  C  is  another  needle  point,  projecting  horizontally 


FIG.   16.     SECOND   CROOKES'  APPARATUS. 


and  touching  a  smoked  glass  plate,  E  F.  This 
glass  plate  is  drawn  along  in  the  direction  H  G 
by  clockwork,  K.  The  end,  B,  of  the  lever  is  weighted 
so  that  it  shall  quickly  follow  the  movements  of  the 


CROOKES'   EXPERIMENTS.  127 

centre  of  the  disc,  A.  These  movements  are  trans- 
mitted and  recorded  on  the  glass  plate,  E  F,  by  means 
of  the  lever  and  needle  point,  C.  Holes  are  cut  in 
the  side  of  the  hoop  to  allow  a  free  passage  of  air  to 
the  under  side  of  the  membrane.  The  apparatus  was 
well  tested  beforehand  by  myself  and  others,  to  see 
that  no  shaking  or  jar  on  the  table  or  support  would 
interfere  with  the  results:  the  line  traced  by  the  point,  C, 


,.*•:. .v»-, 

] 

/T\«  /7s 


FIG.  I?.     SECTION  OP  APPARATUS  IN  FIG.   l6. 

on  the  smoked  glass  was  perfectly  straight  in  spite  of 
all  our  attempts  to  influence  the  lever  by  shaking  the 
stand  or  stamping  on  the  floor. 

"Experiment  V. — Without  having  the  object  of  the 
instrument  explained  to  her,  the  lady  was  brought 
into  the  room  and  asked  to  place  her  fingers  on  the 
wooden  stand  at  the  points,  L  M,  Fig.  16.  I  then 
placed  my  hands  over  hers  to  enable  me  to  detect  any 


128  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

conscious  or  unconscious  movement  on  her  part. 
Presently  percussive  noises  were  heard  on  the  parch- 
ment, resembling  the  dropping  of  grains  of  sand  on 
its  surface.  At  each  percussion  a  fragment  of  graph- 
ite which  I  had  placed  on  the  membrane  was  seen  to 
be  projected  upwards  about  i~5oth  of  r.n  inch,  and 
the  end,  C,  of  the  lever  moved  slightly  up  and  down. 
Sometimes  the  sounds  were  as  rapid  as  those  from 
an  induction-coil,  whilst  at  others  they  were  more 
than  a  second  apart.  Five  or  six  tracings  were  taken, 
and  in  all  cases  a  movement  of  the  end,  C,  of  the  lever 
was  seen  to  have  occurred  with  each  vibration  of  the 
membrane. 

"In  some  cases  the  lady's  hands  were  not  so  near 
the  membrane  as  L  M,  but  were  at  N  O,  Fig  17. 

SCALE  OF  SECONDS. 

D.S  L 


PIG.    18.      DIAGRAM    SHOWING    TENSION    IN    CROOKES'    APPARATUS    (FIG. 
15  AND  16)   OUTSIDE  HOME'S  INFLUENCE. 

"The  accompanying   Fig.   18   gives  tracings  taken 
from  the  plates  used  on  these  occasions. 


CROOKES'    EXPERIMENTS.  129 

"Experiment  VI. — Having  met  with  these  results  in 
Mr.  Home's  absence,  I  was  anxious  to  see  what  ac- 
tion would  be  produced  on  the  instrument  in  his  pres- 
ence. 

''Accordingly  I  asked  him  to  try,  but  without  ex- 
plaining the  instrument  to  him. 

"I  grasped  Mr.  Home's  right  arm  above  the  wrist 
and  held  his  hand  over  the  membrane,  about  10 
inches  from  its  surface,  in  the  position  shown  at  P, 
Fig.  17.  His  other  hand  was  held  by  a  friend.  After 
remaining  in  this  position  for  about  half  a  minute, 
Mr.  Home  said  he  felt  some  influence  passing.  I 
then  set  the  clock  going,  and  we  all  saw  the  index,  C, 
moving  up  and  down.  The  movements  were  much 
slower  than  in  the  former  case,  and  were  almost  en- 
tirely unaccompanied  by  the  percussive  vibrations 
then  noticed. 

"Figs.  19  and  20  show  the  curves  produced  on  the 
glass  on  two  of  these  occasions. 

"Figs.  18,  19  and  20  are  magnified. 

"These  experiments  confirm  beyond  doubt  the  con- 
clusions at  which  I  arrived  in  my  former  paper,  name- 
ly, the  existence  of  a  force  associated,  in  some  manner 
not  yet  explained,  with  the  human  organization,  by 


130  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

which  force  increased  weight  is  capable  of  being  im- 
parted to  solid  bodies  without  physical  contact.  In 
the  case  of  Mr.  Home,  the  development  of  this  force 

SCALE  THE  SAME  AS  IN  FIG     18. 


FIG.   19.      DIAGRAM    SHOWING  TENSION    IN  CROOKES*    APPARATUS   (FIG.  l6 
AND  17)   UNDER  HOME'S  INFLUENCE. 

varies  enormously,  not  only  from  week  to  week,  but 
from  hour  to  hour;  on  some  occasions  the  force  is  in- 
appreciable by  my  tests  for  an  hour  or  more,  and  then 
suddenly  reappears  in  great  strength. 

"It  is  capable  of  acting  at  a  distance  from   Mr. 

SCALE  THE  SAME  AS  ON  FIG.   l8. 


FIG.  20.     DIAGRAM  SHOWING  TENSION  IN  CROOKES'   APPARATUS    (FIG.   l6 
AND  17)   UNDER  HOME'S  INFLUENCE. 

Home  (not  nnfrequently  as  far  as  two  or  three  feet), 
but  is  always  strongest  close  to  him. 

"Being  firmly  convinced  that  there  could  be  no 
manifestation  of  one  form  of  force  without  the  corre- 


CROOKES'  EXPERIMENTS.  131 

spending  expenditure  of  some  other  form  of  force,  I 
for  a  long  time  searched  in  vain  for  evidence  of  any 
force  or  power  being  used  up  in  the  production  of 
these  results. 

"Now,  however,  having  seen  more  of  Mr.  Home,  I 
think  I  perceive  what  it  is  that  this  psychic  force  uses 
up  for  its  development.  In  employing  the  terms  vital 
force  or  nervous  energy,  I  am  aware  that  I  am  em- 
ploying words  which  convey  very  different  significa- 
tions to  many  investigators;  but  after  witnessing  the 
painful  state  of  nervous  and  bodily  prostration  in 
which  some  of  these  experiments  have  left  Mr.  Home 
— after  seeing  him  lying  in  an  almost  fainting  condi- 
tion on  the  floor,  pale  and  speechless — I  could  scarce- 
ly doubt  that  the  evolution  of  psychic  force  is  accom- 
panied by  a  corresponding  drain  on  vital  force." 

Sergeant  Cox  in  speaking  of  the  tests  says,  "The 
results  appear  to  me  conclusively  to  establish  the  im- 
portant fact,  that  there  is  a  force  proceeding  from  the 
nerve-system  capable  of  imparting  motion  and  weight 
to  solid  bodies  within  the  sphere  of  its  influence." 

One  of  the  medium's  defenders  has  written: 

"Home's  mysterious  power,  whatever  it  may  have 
been,  was  very  uncertain.  Sometimes  he  could  ex- 


132  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

ercise  it,  and  at  others  not,  and  these  fluctuations 
were  not  seldom  the  source  of  embarrassment  to  him. 
He  would  often  arrive  at  a  place  in  obedience  to  an 
engagement,  and,  as  he  imagined,  ready  to  perform, 
when  he  would  discover  himself  absolutely  helpless. 
After  a  seance  his  exhaustion  appeared  to  be  com- 
plete. 

"There  is  no  more  striking  proof  of  the  fact  that 
Home  really  possessed  occult  gifts  of  some  sort — 
psychic  force  or  whatever  else  the  power  may  be 
termed — than  he  gave  such  amazing  exhibitions  in 
the  early  part  of  his  history  and  was  able  to  do  so 
little  toward  the  end.  If  it  had  been  juggling  he 
would,  like  other  conjurors,  have  improved  on  his 
tricks  by  experience,  or  at  all  events,  while  his  mem- 
ory held  out  he  would  not  have  deteriorated." 

Dr.  Hammond's  Experiments. 

Dr.  William  A.  Hammond,  the  eminent  neurolo- 
gist, of  Washington,  D.  C,  took  up  the  cudgels 
against  Prof.  Crookes'  "Psychic  Force"  theory,  and 
assigned  the  experiments  to  the  domain  of  animal 
electricity.  He  wrote  as  follows:*  "Place  an  egg  in 
an  egg-cup  and  balance  a  long  lath  upon  the  egg. 

*Spiritualism  and  nervous  derangement,  New  York,  1876.    p.  115. 


HAMMOND'S  EXPERIMENTS.  133 

Though  the  lath  be  almost  a  plank  it  will  obediently 
follow  a  rod  of  glass,  gutta  percha  or  sealing-wax, 
which  has  been  previously  well  dried  and  rubbed,  the 
former  with  a  piece  of  silk,  and  the  two  latter  with 
woolen  cloth.  Now,  in  dry  weather,  many  persons 
within  my  knowledge,  have  only  to-  walk  with  a  shuf- 


FIG.  21.     DR.  HAMMOND'S  APPARATUS. 

fling  gait  over  the  carpet,  and  then  approaching  the 
lath  hold  out  the  finger  instead  of  the  glass,  sealing 
wax  or  gutta  percha,  and  instantly  the  end  of  the  lath 
at  L  rises  to  meet  it,  and  the  end  at  L  is  depressed. 
Applying  these  principles,  I  arranged  an  apparatus 
exactly  like  that  of  Prof.  Crookes,  except  that  the 
spring  balance  was  such  as  is  used  for  weighing  let- 
ters and  was  therefore  very  delicate,  indicating  quar- 
ter ounces  with  exactness,  and  that  the  board  was 
thin  and  narrow. 


134  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

"Applying  the  glass  rod  or  stick  of  sealing-wax  to 
the  end  resting  by  its  foot  on  the  table,  the  index  of 
the  balance  at  once  descended,  showing  an  increased 
weight  of  a  little  over  three  quarters  of  an  ounce,  and 
this  without  the  board  being  raised  from  the  table. 

"I  then  walked  over  a  thick  Turkey  rug  for  a  few 
moments,  and  holding  my  finger  under  the  board 
near  the  end  attached  to  the  balance,  caused  a  fall  of 
the  index  of  almost  half  an  ounce.  I  then  rested  my 
finger  lightly  on  the  end  of  the  board  immediately 
over  the  foot,  and  again  the  index  descended  and  os- 
cillated several  times,  just  as  in  Mr.  Home's  experi- 
ments. The  lowest  point  reached  was  six  and  a  quar- 
ter ounces,  and  as  the  board  weighed,  as  attached  to 
the  balance,  five  ounces,  there  was  an  increased 
weight  of  one  and  a  quarter  ounces.  At  no  time  was 
the  end  of  the  board  raised  from  the  table. 

"I  then  arranged  the  apparatus  so  as  to  place  a  thin 
glass  tumbler  nearly  full  of  water  immediately  over 
the  fulcrum,  as  in  Mr.  Crookes'  experiment,  and  again 
the  index  fell  and  oscillated  on  my  fingers  being  put  into 
the  water. 

"Now  if  one  person  can  thus,  with  a  delicate  ap- 
paratus like  mine,  cause  the  index,  through  electri- 


ROPE-TYING.  I35 

city,  to  descend  and  ascend,  it  is  not  improbable  that 
others,  like  Mr.  Home,  could  show  greater,  or  even 
different  electrical  power,  as  in  Prof.  Crookes'  experi- 
ments. It  is  well  known  that  all  persons  are  not  alike 
in  their  ability  to  be  electrically  excited.  Many  per- 
sons, myself  among  them,  can  light  the  gas  with  the 
end  of  the  finger.  Others  cannot  do  it  with  any 
amount  of  shuffling  over  the  carpet. 

"At  any  rate  is  it  not  much  more  sensible  to  believe 
that   Mr.   Home's   experiments   are   to   be   thus   ex- 
plained than  to  attribute  the  results  of  his  semi-mys- 
terious attempts  to  spiritualism  or  psychic  force?" 
8.    Rope-Tying  and  Holding  Mediums. 

THE  DAVENPORT  BROTHERS. 

Ira  Erastus  and  William  Henry  Davenport  were 
born  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  the  former  on  Sept.  17,  1839, 
and  the  latter  on  February  1,  1841.  Their  father,  Ira 
Davenport,  was  in  the  police  detective  department, 
and,  it  is  alleged,  invented  the  celebrated  rope-tying 
feats  after  having  seen  the  Indian  jugglers  of  the 
West  perform  similar  illusions.  The  usual  stories 
about  ghostly  phenomena  attending  the  childhood  of 
mediums  were  told  about  the  Davenport  Brothers, 
but  it  was  not  until  1855  that  they  started  on  their  tour 


136  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

of  the  United  States,  with  their  father  as  showman  or 
spiritual  lecturer.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out, 
the  Brothers,  accompanied  by  Dr.  J.  B.  Ferguson, 
formerly  an  Independent  minister  of  Nashville,  Tenn., 
in  the  capacity  of  lecturer,  and  a  Mr.  Palmer  as  gen- 
eral agent  and  manager,  went  to  England  to  exhibit 
their  mediumistic  powers,  following  the  example  of 
D.  D.  Home.  With  the  company  also  was  a  Buffalo 
boy  named  Fay,  of  German-American  parentage,  who 
had  formerly  acted  as  ticket-taker  for  the  mediums. 
He  discovered  the  secret  of  the  rope-tying  feat,  and 
was  an  adept  at  the  coat  feat,  so  he  was  employed  as 
an  "under-study"  in  case  of  the  illness  of  William 
Davenport,  who  was  in  rather  delicate  health.  The 
Brothers  Davenport  at  this  period,  aged  respectively 
25  and  23  years,  had  "long  black  curly  hair,  broad  but 
not  high  foreheads,  dark  eyes,  heavy  eye-brows  and 
moustaches,  firm  set  lips,  and  a  bright,  keen  look." 
Their  first  performance  in  England  was  given  at  the 
Concert  Rooms,  Hanover  Square,  London,  and 
created  intense  excitement. 

Punch  called  the  furore  over  the  spirit  rope-tyers 
the  "tie-fuss  fever,"  and  said  the  mediums  were 
"Ministers  of  the  Interior,  with  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet." 


ROPE-TYING.  137 

J.  N.  Maskelyne,  the  London  conjurer  of  Egyptian 
Hall,  wrote  of  them:  "About  the  Davenport  Broth- 
ers' performances,  I  have  to  say  that  they  were  and 
still  remain  the  most  inexplicable  ever  presented  to 
the  public  as  of  spiritual  origin;  and  had  they  been 
put  forth  as  feats  of  jugglery  would  have  awakened 
a  considerable  amount  of  curiosity  though  certainly 
not  to  the  extent  they  did." 

In  September,  1865,  the  Brothers  arrived  in  Paris, 
and  placarded  the  city  with  enormous  posters  an- 
nouncing that  the  Brothers  Davenport,  spirit-me- 
diums, would  give  a  series  of  public  seances  at  the 
Salle  Herz.  Their  reputation  had  preceded  them  to 
France  and  the  boulevardiers  talked  of  nothing  but  the 
wonderful  American  mediums  and  their  mysterious 
cabinet.  Before  exhibiting  in  Paris  the  Davenports 
visited  the  Chateau  de  Gennevilliers,  whose  owner  was 
an  enthusiastic  believer  in  Spiritism,  and  gave  a 
stance  before  a  select  party  of  journalists  and  scien- 
tific men.  The  exhibition  was  pronounced  marvel- 
lous in  the  extreme  and  perfectly  inexplicable. 

The  Parisian  press  was  divided  on  the  subject  of 
the  Davenports  and  their  advertised  seances.  Some 
of  the  papers  protested  against  such  performances  »ft 


138  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

the  ground  that  they  were  dangerous  to  the  mental 
health  of  the  public,  and,  one  writer  said,  "Particularly 
to  those  weaker  intellects  which  are  always  ready 
enough  to  accept  as  gospel  the  tricks  and  artifices  of 
the  adepts  of  sham  witchcraft."  M.  Edmond  About, 
the  famous  journalist  and  novelist,  in  the  Opinion  Na- 
tionale,  wrote  a  scathing  denunciation  of  Spiritism,  but 
all  to  no  purpose,  except  to  inflame  public  curiosity. 

The  performances  of  the  Davenports  were  divided 
into  two  parts:  (1)  The  light  seance,  (2)  the  dark 
seance.  In  the  light  seance  a  cabinet,  elevated  from 
the  stage  by  three  trestles,  was  used.  It  was  a  simple 
wooden  structure  with  three  doors.  In  the  centre 
door  was  a  lozenge-shaped  window  covered  with  a 
curtain.  Upon  the  sides  of  the  cabinet  hung  various 
musical  instruments,  a  guitar,  a  violin,  horns,  tam- 
bourines, and  a  big  dinner  bell. 

A  committee  chosen  by  the  audience  tied  the  me- 
diums' hands  securely  behind  their  backs,  fastened 
their  legs  together,  and  pinioned  them  to  their  seats 
in  the  cabinet,  and  to  the  cross  rails  with  strong 
ropes.  The  side  doors  were  closed  first,  then  the 
center  door,  but  no  sooner  was  the  last  fastened,  than 
the  hands  of  one  of  the  mediums  were  thrust  through 


ROPE-TYING. 


139 


FIG,  22.     THE  DAVENPORT  BROTHERS  IN  THEIR  CABINET. 


I40  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

thewindow  in  the  centre  door.  In  a  very  short  time,at 
asignalfrom  the  mediums,  the  doors  were  opened,and 
the  Davenports  stepped  forth,  with  the  ropes  in  their 
hands,  every  knot  untied,  confessedly  by  spirit  power. 
The  astonishment  of  the  spectators  amounted  to  awe. 
On  an  average  it  took  ten  minutes  to  pinion  the 
Brothers;  but  a  single  minute  was  required  for  their 
release.  Once  more  the  mediums  went  into  the  cabi- 
net, this  time  with  the  ropes  lying  in  a  coil  at  their 
feet.  Two  minutes  elapsed.  Hey,  presto!  the  doors 
were  opened,  and  the  Davenports  were  pronounced 
by  the  committee  to  be  securely  lashed  to  their  seats. 
Seals  were  affixed  to  the  knots  in  the  ropes,  and  the 
doors  closed  as  before.  Pandemonium  reigned. 
Bells  were  rung,  horns  blown,  tambourines  thumped, 
violins  played,  and  guitars  vigorously  twanged. 
Heavy  rappings  also  were  heard  on  the  ceiling,  sides 
and  floor  of  the  cabinet,  then  after  a  brief  but  absolute 
silence,  a  bare  hand  and  arm  emerged  from  the 
lozenge  window,  and  rung  the  big  dinner  bell.  On 
opening  the  doors  the  Brothers  were  found  securely 
tied  as  before,  and  seals  intact.  An  amusing  feature 
of  the  exhibition  occurred  when  a  venturesome  spec- 
tator volunteered  to  sit  inside  of  t'ne  cabinet  between 


ROPE-TYING.  141 

the  two  mediums.  He  came  out  with  his  coat  turned 
inside  out  and  his  hat  jammed  over  his  eyes.  In  the 
dark  stance  the  cabinet  was  dispensed  with  and  the 
spectators,  holding  hands,  formed  a  ring  around  the 
mediums.  The  lights  were  put  out  and  similar 
phenomena  took  place,  with  the  addition  of  luminous 
hands,  and  musical  instruments  floating  in  the  air. 

Robert-Houdin  wrote  an  interesting  brochure  on 
the  Davenports,  ("Secrets  of  Stage  Conjuring,"  translated 
by  Prof.  Hoffmann)  from  which  I  take  the  following: 
'The  ropes  used  by  the  Davenport  Brothers  are  of  a 
cotton  fibre;  and  they  present  therefore  smooth  sur- 
faces, adapted  to  slip  easily  one  upon  another.  Gen- 
tlemen are  summoned  from  the  audience  to  tie  the 
mediums.  Now,  tell  me,  is  it  an  easy  task  for  an  am- 
ateur to  tie  a  man  up  off-hand  with  a  rope  three  yards 
long,  in  a  very  secure  way?  The  amateur  is  flurried, 
self-conscious,  anxious  to  acquit  himself  well  of  the 
business,  but  he  is  a  gentleman,  not  a  brute,  and  if 
one  of  the  Brothers  sees  the  ropes  getting  into  a  dan- 
gerous tangle,  he  gives  a  slight  groan,  as  if  he  were 
being  injured,  and  the  instantaneous  impulse  of  the 
other  man  is  to  loosen  the  cord  a  trifle.  A  fraction  of 
an  inch  is  an  invaluable  gain  in  the  after-business  of 


142  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

loosening  the  ropes.  Sometimes  the  stiffening  of  a 
muscle,  the  raising  of  a  shoulder,  the  crooking  of  a 
knee,  gives  all  the  play  required  by  the  Brothers  in 
ridding  themselves  of  their  bonds.  Their  muscles 
and  joints  are  wonderfully  supple,  too*;  the  thumbs 
can  be  laid  flat  in  the  palm  of  the  hand,  the  hand  it- 
self rounded  until  it  is  no  broader  than  the  wrist,  and 
then  it  is-  easy  to  pull  through.  Violent  wrenches 
send  the  ropes  up  toward  the  shoulder,  vigorous  shak- 
ings get  the  legs  free;  the  first  hand  untied  is  thrust 
through  the  hole  in  the  door  of  the  cabinet,  and  then 
returns  to  give  aid  to  more  serious  knots  on  his  own 
or  his  brother's  person.  In  tying  themselves  up  the 
Davenports  used  the  slip-knot,  a  sort  of  bow,  the  ends 
of  which  have  only  to  be  pulled  to  be  tightened  or 
loosened." 

This  slip-knot  is  a  very  ingenious  affair.  (See  Fig. 
23.)  In  performing  the  spirit-tying,  the  mediums 
went  into  the  cabinet  with  the  ropes  examined  by  the 
audience  lying  coiled  at  their  feet.  The  doors  were 
closed.  They  had  concealed  about  their  persons 
ropes  in  which  these  trick  knots  were  already  ad- 
justed, and  with  which  they  very  speedily  secured 
themselves,  having  first  secreted  the  genuine  ropes. 


ROPE-TYING.  143 

Then  the  doors  were  opened.  Seals  were  affixed  to 
the  knots,  but  this  sealing,  owing  to  the  position  of 
the  hands,  and  the  careful  exposition  of  the 
knots  did  not  affect  the  slipping  of  the  ropes  suf- 
ficiently to  prevent  the  mediums  from  removing  and 
replacing  their  hands. 


NO.  23.     TRICK-TIE  USED  IN  CABINKT  WORK, 

In  the  dark  seance,  flour  was  sometimes  placed  in 
the  pinioned  hands  of  the  Davenports.  On  being  re- 
leased from  their  bonds,  the  flour  was  found  undis- 
turbed. 

This  was  considered  a  convincing  test;  for  how 
could  the  Brothers  possibly  manipulate  the  musical 
instruments  with  their  hands  full  of  flour.  One  day  a 
wag  substituted  a  handful  of  snuff  for  flour,  and  when 
the  mediums  were  examined,  the  snuff  had  disap- 
peared and  flour  taken  its  place.  As  will  be  under- 


144  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

stood,  in  the  above  test  the  Davenports  emptied  the 
flour  from  their  hands  into  secret  pockets  and  at  the 
proper  moment  took  out  cornucopias  of  flour  and 
filled  their  hands  again  before  securing  themselves 
in  the  famous  slip-knots. 

Among  the  exposes  of  the  Brothers  Davenport, 
Herrmann,  the  conjurer,  gives  the  following  in 
the  Cosmopolitan  Magazine:  "The  Davenports,  for 
thirteen  years,  in  Europe  and  America,  augmented 
the  faith  in  Spiritualism.  Unfortunately  for  the  Dav- 
enports they  appeared  at  Ithaca,  New  York,  where  is 
situated  Cornell  University.  The  students  having  a 
scientific  trend  of  mind,  provided  themselves  before 
attending  the  performance  with  pyiotechnic  balls  con- 
taining phosphorus,  so  made  as  to  ignite  suddenly  with 
a  bright  light.  During  the  dark  seance  when  the  Dav- 
enports were  supposed  to  be  bound  hand  and  foot  within 
the  closet  and  when  the  guitars  were  apparently  floating 
in  the  air,  the  students  struck  their  lights,  whereupon 
the  spirits  were  found  to  be  no  other  than  the  Daven- 
ports themselves,  dodging  about  the  stage  brandish- 
ing guitars  and  playing  tunes  and  waving  at  the  same 
time  tall  poles  surmounted  by  phosphorescent  spook 
pictures." 


ROPE-TYING.  145 

The  Davenports  had  some  stormy  experiences  in 
Paris,  but  managed  to  come  through  all  successfully, 
with  plenty  of  French  gold  in  their  pockets.  William 
died  in  October,  1877,  at  the  Oxford  Hotel,  Sydney, 
Australia,  having  publicly  denounced  '  Spiritualism. 
Mr.  Fay  took  to  raising  sheep  in  Australia,  while  Ira 
Davenport  drifted  back  to  his  old  home  in  Buffalo, 
New  York. 

Many  mediums,  taking  the  cue  from  the  Daven- 
ports, have  performed  the  cabinet  act  with  its  accom- 
panying rope-tying,  but  the  conjurers  (anti-spiritists) 
have,  with  the  aid  of  mechanism,  brought  the  busi- 
ness to  a  high  degree  of  perfection,  notably  Mr.  J. 
Nevil  Maskelyne,  of  Egyptian  Hall,  London,  and 
Mr.  Harry  Kellar,  of  the  United  States.  Writing  of 
the  Davenport  Brothers,  Maskelyne  says: 

"The  instantaneous  tying  and  untying  was  simply 
marvellous,  and  it  utterly  baffled  everyone  to  dis- 
cover, until,  on  one  occasion,  the  accidental  falling  of 
a  piece  of  drapery  from  a  window  (the  lozenge-shaped 
aperture  in  the  door  of  the  cabinet),  at  a  critical  mo- 
ment let  me  into  the  secret.  I  was  able  in  a  few 
months  to  reproduce  every  item  of  the  Davenports* 
cabinet  and  dark  stance.  So  close  was  the  resem- 


146  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

blance  to  the  original,  that  the  Spiritualist  had 'no alter- 
native but  to  claim  us  (Maskelyne  and  Cooke)  as 
most  powerful  spirit  mediums  who  found  it  more  pro- 
fitable to  deny  the  assistance  of  spirits?' 

Robert-Houdin's  explanation  of  the  slip-knot,  used 
by  the  Davenports  in  their  dark  seance,  is  the  correct 
one,  but  he  failed  to  fathom  the  mystery  of  the  mode 
of  release  of  the  Brothers  after  they  were  tied  in  the 
cabinet  by  a  committee  selected  from  the  audience. 
Anyone  trying  to  extricate  himself  from  bondage  a 
la  Houdin,  no  matter  how  slippery  and  serpentine  he 
be,  would  find  it  exceedingly  difficult.  It  seems  al- 
most incredible,  but  trickery  was  used  in  the  light 
seance,  as  well  as  the  dark.  Maskelyne,  as  quoted 
above,  claimed  to  have  penetrated  the  mystery,  but 
he  kept  it  a  profound  secret — though  he  declared  that 
his  cabinet  work  was  trickery.  The  writer  is  in- 
debted for  an  initiation  into  the  mysteries  of  the  Dav- 
enport Brothers'  rope-tying  to  Mr.  H.  Morgan  Rob- 
inson (Professor  Helmann),  of  Washington,  D.  C,  a 
very  clever  prestidigitateur. 

In  the  year  1895,  after  an  unbroken  silence  of  nine- 
teen years,  Fay,  ex-assistant  of  the  Davenports,  de- 
termined to  resume  the  profession  of  public  medium. 


ROPE-TYING.  !47 

He  abandoned  his  sheep  ranch  and  hunted  up  Ira 
Davenport.  They  gave  several  performances  in 
Northern  towns,  and  finally  landed  at  the  Capital  of 
the  Nation,  in  the  spring  of  1895,  and  advertised  sev- 
eral seances  at  Willard's  Hall.  A  very  small  audi- 
ence greeted  them  on  their  first  appearance.  Among 
the  committee  volunteering  to  go  on  the  stage  and 
tie  the  mediums  were  the  writer  and  Mr.  Robinson. 
After  the  seance  the  prestidigitateur  fully  explained  the 
modus  operandi  of  the  mystic  tie,  which  is  herein  for 
the  first  time  correctly  given  to  the  public. 

The  medium  holds  out  his  left  wrist  first  and  has 
it  tied  securely,  about  the  middle  of  the  rope.  Two 
members  of  the  committee  are  directed  to  pull  the 
ends  of  the  cord  vigorously.  "Are  you  confident  that 
the  knots  are  securely  tied?"  he  asks;  when  the  com- 
mittee respond  "yes,"  he  puts  his  hand  quickly  behind 
him,  and  places  against  the  wrist,  the  wrist  of  his 
right  hand,  in  order  that  they  may  be  pinioned  to- 
gether. During  this  rapid  movement  he  twists  the 
rope  about  the  knot  on  his  left  wrist,  thereby  allowing 
enough  slack  cord  to  disengage  his  right  hand  when 
necessary.  To  slip  the  right  hand  back  into'  place  is 
an  easy  matter.  After  both  hands  are  presumably 


148  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

tied,  the  medium  steps  into  the  cabinet;  the 
ends  of  the  rope  are  pushed  through  two  holes  in 
the  chair  or  wooden  seat,  by  the  committee  and  made 
fast  to  the  medium's  legs.  Bells  ring,  horns  blow, 
and  the  performer's  hand  is  thrust  through  the  win- 
dow of  the  cabinet.  Finally  a  gentleman  is  requested 
to  enter  the  cabinet  with  the  medium.  The  doors  are 
locked  and  a  perfect  pandemonium  begins;  when  they 
are  opened  the  volunteer  assistant  tumbles  out  in 
great  trepidation.  His  hat  is  smashed  over  his  eyes, 
his  cravat  is  tied  around  his  leg,  and  he  is  found  to 
have  on  the  medium's  coat,  while  the  medium  wears 
the  gentleman's  coat  turned  inside  out.  It  all  ap- 
pears very  remarkable,  but  the  mystery  is  cleared  up 
when  I  state  that  the  innocent  looking  gentleman  is 
invariably  a  confederate,  what  conjurers  call  a  plant, 
because  he  is  planted  in  the  audience  to  volunteer  for 
the  special  act. 

Ira  and  William  Davenport  were  tied  in  the  man- 
ner above  described.  Often  one  of  the  Brothers  al- 
lowed himself  to  be  genuinely  pinioned,  after  having 
received  a  preconcerted  signal  from  his  partner  that 
all  was  right,  i.  e.,  the  partner  had  been  fastened  by 
the  trick  tie,  calling  attention  to  the  knots  in  the  cord, 


ROPE-TYING.  149 

etc.  The  trick  tie,  however,  is  so  delusive,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  penetrate  the  secret  in  the  short  time 
allowed  the  committee  for  investigation,  and  there  is 
no  special  reason  for  permitting  a  genuine  tie-up. 
Once  in  a  great  while,  the  Davenports  were  over- 
reached by  clever  committee-men  and  tied  up  so 
tightly  that  there  was  no  getting  loose.  Where  one 
brother  failed  to  execute  the  trick  and  was  genuinely 
fastened,  the  other  medium  performed  the  spirit  evo- 
lutions, and  cut  his  "confrere"  loose  before  they  came 
out  of  the  cabinet. 

The  Fay-Davenport  revival  proved  a  failure,  and 
the  mediums  dissolved  partnership  in  Washington. 
Kellar,  the  magician  and  former  assistant  of  the  orig- 
inal Davenport  combination,  by  a  curious  coincidence 
was  giving  his  fine  conjuring  exhibition  in  the  city  at 
the  same  time.  His  tricks  far  eclipsed  the  feeble  re- 
vival of  the  rope-tying  phenomena.  The  fickle 
public  crowded  to  see  the  magician  and  neglected  the 
mediums. 

ANNIE    EVA    FAY. 

One  of  the  most  famous  of  the  materializing  me- 
diums now  exhibiting  in  the  United  States  is  Annie 


150  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

Eva  Fay.  She  is  quite  an  adept  at  the  spirit-tying 
business,  and  like  the  Davenports,  uses  a  cabinet  on 
the  stage,  but  her  method  of  tying,  though  clever,  is 
inferior  to  that  used  by  the  Brothers  in  their  balmy 
days.  In  the  center  of  the  Fay  cabinet  (»a  plain,  cur- 
tained affair)  is  a  post  firmly  screwed  to  the  stage. 
The  medium  permits  a  committee  of  two  from  the 
audience  to  tie  her  to  this  post,  and  seal  the  bandages 
about  her  wrists  with  court  plaster.  She  then  takes 
her  seat  upon  a  small  stool  in  front  of  the  stanchion; 
the  musical  instruments  are  placed  on  her  lap,  and  the 
curtains  of  the  cabinet  closed.  Immediately  the  evi- 
dences of  spirit  power  begin:  the  bell  is  jingled,  the 
tambourine  thumped,  and  the  sound  of  a  horn  heard, 
simultaneously. 

The  Fay  method  of  tying  is  designed  especially  to 
facilitate  the  medium's  actions.  Cotton  bandages  are 
used,  and  the  committee  are  invited  to  sew  the  knots 
through  and  through.  Each  wrist  is  tied  with  a 
bandage,  about  an  inch  and  a  half  wide  by  a  half  yard 
in  length;  and  the  medium  then  clasps  her  hands  be- 
hind her,  so  that  her  wrists  are  about  six  inches  apart. 
The  committee  now  proceed  to  tie  the  ends  of  the 
bandages  firmly  together,  and,  after  this  is  accom- 


ROPE-TYING.  ISI 

plished,  the  dangling  pieces  of  the  bandages  are 
clipped  off.  It  is  true,  the  medium  is  firmly  bound 
by  this  process,  and  it  would  be  physically  impossible 
for  her  to  release  herself,  without  disturbing  the  sew- 
ing and  the  seals,  but  it  is  not  intended  for  her  to  re- 
lease herself  at  all;  the  method  pursued  being  alto- 
gether different  from  the  old  species  of  rope-tying. 
All  being  secure,  the  committee  are  requested  to  pass 
another  bandage  about  the  short  ligature  between  the 
lady's  wrists,  and  tie  it  in  double  square  knots,  and 
firmly  secure  this  to  a  ring  in  the  post  of  the  cabinet, 
the  medium  being  seated  on  a  stool  in  front  of  the 
stanchion,  facing  the  audience.  Her  neck  is  like- 
wise secured  to  the  post  by  cotton  bandages  and  her 
feet  fastened  together  with  a  cord,  the  end  of  which 
passes  out  of  the  cabinet  and  is  held  by  one  of  the 
committee. 

The  peculiar  manner  of  holding  the  hands,  de- 
scribed above,  enables  the  medium  to  secure  for  her 
use,  a  ligature  of  knotted  cloth  between  her  hands, 
some  six  inches  long;  and  the  central  bandage,  usu- 
ally tied  in  four  or  five  double  knots,  gives  her  about 
two  inches  play  between  the  middle  of  the  cotton 
handcuffs  and  the  ring  in  the  post,  to  which  it  is  se- 


152  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

cured.  The  ring  is  two  and  a  half  inches  in  diam- 
eter, and  the  staple  which  holds  it  to  the  stanchion  is 
a  half  inch.  The  left  hand  of  the  medium  gives  six 
additional  inches,  and  the  bandage  on  her  wrist  slips 
readily  along  her  slender  arm  nearly  half  way  to  the 
elbow — "all  of  which,"  says  John  W.  Truesdell,*  who 
was  the  first  to  expose  Miss  Fay's  spirit  pretensions, 
"gives  the  spirits  a  clear  leeway  of  not  less  than  20 
inches  from  the  stanchion.  The  moment  the  curtain 
is  closed,  the  medium,  under  spirit  influence  spreads 
her  hands  as  far  apart  as  possible,  an  act  which 
stretches  the  knotted  ligature  so  that  the  bandage 
about  it  will  easily  slip  from  the  centre  to  either  wrist ; 
then,  throwing  her  lithe  form  by  a  quick  movement, 
to  the  left,  so  that  her  hips  will  pass  the  stanchion 
without  moving  her  feet  from  the  floor,  the  spirits  are 
able,  through  the  medium,  to  reach  whatever  may 
have  been  placed  upon  her  lap." 

One  of  Annie  Eva's  most  convincing  tests  is  the 
accordion  which  plays,  after  it  has  been  bound  fast 
with  tapes  and  the  tapes  carefully  sealed  at  every 
note,  so  as  to  prevent  its  being  performed'  on  in  the 
regular  manner.  Her  method  of  operating,  though 

*The  Bottom  Facts  Concerning  the  Science  of  Spiritualism,  etc.,  New 
York,  1883. 


ROPE-TYING.  153 

simple,  is  decidedly  ingenious.  She  places  a  small 
tube  in  the  valve-hole  of  the  instrument,  breathes  and 
blows  alternately  into  it,  and  then  by  fingering  the 
keys,  executes  an  air  with  excellent  effect. 

Sometimes  she  places  a  musical  box  on  an  oblong 
plate  of  glass  suspended  from  the  ceiling  by  four 
cords.  The  box  plays  and  stops  at  word  of  com- 
mand, much  to  the  astonishment  of  listeners.  "Elec- 
tricity," exclaims  the  reader!  Hardly  so,  for  the  box 
is  completely  insulated  on  the  sheet  of  glass.  Then 
how  is  it  done?  Mr.  Asprey  Vere,  an  investigator  of 
spirit  phenomena,  tells  the  secret  in  the  following 
words:  ("Modern  Magic").  "In  the  box  there  is 
placed  a  balance  lever  which  when  the  glass  is 
in  the  slightest  degree  tilted,  arrests  the  fly-fan, 
and  thus  prevents  the  machinery  from  moving. 
At  the  word  of  command  the  glass  is  made 
level,  and  the  fly-fan  being  released,  the  ma- 
chinery moves,  and  a  tune  is  played.  When  com- 
manded to  stop,  either  side  of  the  cord  is  pulled  by  a 
confederate  behind  the  scenes,  the  balance  lever 
drops,  the  fly-fan  is  arrested,  and  the  music  stops." 

One  of  the  tests  presented  to  the  American  public 
by  this  medium  is  the  "spirit-hand,"  constructed  of 


154  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

painted  wood  or  papier  mache,  which  raps  out  answers 
to  questions,  after  it  has  been  isolated  from  all  contact 
by  being  placed  on  a  sheet  of  glass  supported  on  the 
backs  of  two  chairs. 

It  is  a  trick  performed  by  every  conjurer,  and  the 
secret  is  a  piece  of  black  silk  thread,  worked  by  con- 
federates stationed  in  the  wings  of  the  theatre,  one  at 
the  right,  the  other  at  the  left.  The  thread  lies  along 
the  stage  when  not  in  use,  but  at  the  proper  cue  from 
the  medium,  it  is  lifted  up  and  brought  in  contact 
with  the  wooden  hand.  The  hand  is  so  constructed 
that  the  palm  lies  on  the  glass  sheet  and  the  wrist, 
with  a  fancy  lace  cuff  about  it,  is  elevated  an  inch 
above  the  glass,  the  whole  apparatus  being  so  pivoted 
that  a  pressure  of  the  thread  from  above  will  depress 
the  wrist  and  elevate  the  palm.  When  the  thread  is 
relaxed  the  hand  comes  down  on  the  glass  with  a 
thump  and.  makes  the  spirit  rap  which  is  so  effective. 
A  rapping  skull  made  on  similar  principles  is  also  in 
vogue  among  mediums. 

CHARLES  SLADE. 

Annie  Eva  Fay  has  a  rival  in  Charles  Slade, 
who  is  a  clever  performer  and  a  most  convincing 


ROPE-TYING.  I5g 

talker.  His  cabinet  test  is  the  same  as  Miss  Fay's, 
but  he  has  other  specialties  that  are  worth  explaining 
— one  is  the  "table-raising,"  and  another  is. the  "spirit 
neck-tie."  The  effect  of  the  first  experiment  is  as  fol- 
lows: Slade,  with  his  arms  bared  and  coat  removed, 
requests  several  gentlemen  to  sit  around  a  long  table, 
reserving  the  head  for  himself.  Hands  are  placed  on 
the  table,  and  developments  awaited.  "Do  you  feel 
the  table  raising?"  asks  the  medium,  after  a  short 
pause.  "We  do!"  comes  the  response  of  the  sitters. 
Slade  then  rises;  all  stand  up,  and  the  table  is  seen 
suspended  in  the  air,  about  a  foot  from  the  floor  of  the 
stage.  In  a  little  wfiile  an  uncontrollable  desire 
seems  to  take  possession  of  the  table  to  rush  about 
the  stage.  Frequently  the  medium  requests  several 
persons  to  get  on  the  table,  but  that  has  no  effect 
whatever.  The  same  levitation  takes  place.  The  se- 
cret of  this  surprising  mediumistic  test  is  very  simple. 
In  the  first  place,  the  man  who  sits  at  the  foot  of  the 
table  is  a  confederate.  Both  medium  and  confeder- 
ate wear  about  their  waists  wide  leather  belts,  ribbed 
and  strengthened  with  steel  bands,  and  supported 
from  the  shoulders  by  bands  of  leather  and  steel.  In 
the  front  of  each  belt  is  a  steel  hinge  concealed  by  the 


156  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

vest  of  the  wearer.  In  the  act  of  sitting  down  at  the 
table  the  medium  and  his  confederate  quickly  pull 
tlfe  hinges  which  catch  under  the  top  of  the  table 
when  the  sitters  rise.  The  rest  of  the  trick  is  easily 
comprehended.  When  the  levitation  act  is  finished 
the  hinges  are  folded  up  and  hidden  under  the  vests  of 
the  performers. 

The  "spirit  neck-tie"  is  one  of  the  best  things  in 
the  whole  range  of  mediumistic  marvels,  and  has 
never  to  my  knowledge  been  exposed.  A  rope  is  tied 
about  the  medium's  neck  with  the  knots  at  the  back 
and  the  ends  are  thrust  through  two  holes  in  one  side 
of  the  cabinet,  and  tied  in  a  bow  knot  on  the  outside. 
The  holes  in  the  cabinet  must  be  on  a  level  with  the 
medium's  neck,  after  he  is  seated.  The  curtains  of 
the  cabinet  are  then  closed,  and  the  committee  re- 
quested to  keep  close  watch  on  the  bow-knot  on  the 
outside  of  the  cabinet.  The  assistant  in  a  short  time 
pulls  back  the  curtain  from  the  cabinet  on  the  side 
farthest  from  the  medium,  and  reveals  a  sheeted  fig- 
ure which  writes  messages  and  speaks  to  the  spe^cta- 
tors.  Other  materializations  take  place.  The  cur- 
tain is  drawn.  At  this  juncture  the  medium  is  heard 
calling:  "Quick,  quick,  release  me!"  The  assistant 


ROPE-TYING.  157 

unfastens  the  bow-knot,  the  ends  of  the  rope  are 
quickly  drawn  into  the  cabinet,  and  the  medium 
comes  forward,  looking  somewhat  exhausted,  with 
the  rope  still  tied  about  his  neck.  The  question  re- 
solves itself  into  two  factors — either  the  medium  gets 
loose  the  neck-tie  and  impersonates  the  spirits  or  the 
materializations  are  genuine.  "Gets  loose!  But  that 
is  impossible,"  exclaim  the  committee,  "we  watched 
the  cord  in  the  closest  way."  The  secret  of  this  sur- 
prising feat  lies  in  a  clever  substitution.  The  tie  is 
genuine,  but  the  medium,  after  the  curtains  of  the 
cabinet  are  closed,  cuts  the  cord  with  a  sharp  knife, 
just  about  the  region  of  the  throat,  and  impersonates 
the  ghosts,  with  the  aid  of  various  wigs  and  disguises 
concealed  about  him.  Then  he  takes  a  second  cord 
from  his  pocket,  ties  it  about  his  neck  with  the  same 
number  of  knots  as  are  in  the  original  rope  and  twists 
the  neck-tie  around  so  that  these  knots  will  appear  at 
the  back  of  his  neck.  Now,  he  exclaims,  "Quick, 
quick,  unfasten  the  cord."  As  soon  as  his  assistant 
has  untied  the  simple  bow  knot  on  the  outside  of  the 
cabinet,  the  medium  quickly  pulls  the  genuine  rope 
into  the  cabinet  and  conceals  it  in  his  pocket. 

When  he  presents  himself  to  the  spectators  the  rope 


158  CHARLES   SLADE  S  ADVERTISEMENT. 

SLADE 

Will  fully  demonstrate  the  various  meth- 
ods employed  by  such  renowned  spiritual- 
istic mediums  as  Alex.  Hume,  Mrs. 
Hoffmann,  Prof.  Taylor,  Chas.  Cooke, 
Richard  Bishop,  Dr.  Arnold,  and  various 
others, 

IN  PLAIN,  OPEN  LIGHT. 

Every  possible  means  will  be  used  to  enlighten  the  auditor 
as  to  whether  these  so-called  wonders  are  enacted  through  the 
aid  of  spirits  or  are  the  result  of  natural  agencies. 

SUCH  PHENOMENA.   AS 

Spirit  Materializations, 
Marvelous  Superhuman  Visions, 
Spiritualistic  Rappings, 
Slate  Writing, 
Spirit  Pictures, 

Floating  Tables  and  Chairs, 

Remarkable  Test  of  the  Human  Mind, 

Second  Sight  Mysteries, 

A  Human  Being  Isolated  from  Surrounding  Objects 
Floating  in  Mid=Air. 

Committees  will  be  selected  by  the  audience  to  assist 
SLADE,  and  to  report  their  views  as  to  the  why  and  wherefore 
of  the  many  strange  things  that  will  be  shown  during  the  even- 
ing. This  is  done  so  that  every  person  attending  may  learn 
the  truth  regarding  the  tests,  whether  they  are  genuine,  or 
caused  by  expert  trickery. 

Do  not  class  or  confound  SLADE  with  the  numerous  so- 
called  spirit  mediums  and  spiritual  exposers  that  travel  through 
the  country,  like  a  set  of  roaming  vampires,  seeking  whom 
they  may  devour.  It  is  SLADE'S  object  in  coming  to  your 
city  to  enlighten  the  people  one  way  or  the  other  as  to  the  real 

TRUTH  CONCERNING  THESE  MYSTERIES. 


CHARLES   SLADE  S  ADVERTISEMENT.  159 

Scientific  men,  and  man^  great  men,  have  believed  there 
was  a  grain  of  essential  truth  in  the  claims  of  Spiritualism.  It 
was  believed  more  on  the  account  of  the  want  of  power  to  deny 
it  than  anything  else.  The  idea  that  under  some  strained  and 
indefinable  possibilities  the  spirit  of  the  mortal  man  may  com- 
municate with  the  spirit  of  the  departed  man  is  something  that 
the  great  heart  of  humanity  is  prone  to  believe,  as  it  has  faith 
in  future  existence.  No  skeptic  will  deny  any  man's  right  to 
such  a  belief,  but  this  little  grain  of  hope  has  been  the  founda- 
tion for  such  extensive  and  heartless  mediumistic  frauds  that  it 
is  constantly  losing  ground. 

R     NIOHT    OJP 

Wonderful  Manifestations 


So  that  all  may  have  an  insight  into  the 

WORLD 

And  behold  many  things  that  are 

Strange  and  Startling. 

The  Clergy,  the  Press,  Learned  Synods  and  Councils,  Sage 
Philosophers  and  Scientists,  in  fact,  the  whole  world  have  pro- 
claimed these  Philosophical  Idealisms  to  be  an  astounding 


YOU    HRB    BROUGHT 

Face  to  Face  with  the  Spirits. 


A    SMALL    ADMISSION   WILL    BE     CHARGED    TO 
DEFRAY   EXPENSES. 


160  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

about  his  neck  (presumed  to  be  the  original)  is  found 
to  be  correctly  tied  and  untampered  with.  Much  of 
the  effect  depends  on  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
medium  conceals  the  original  cord  and  comes  out  of 
the  cabinet.  The  author  has  seen  this  trick  per- 
formed in  parlors,  the  holes  being  bored  in  a  door. 

Charles  Slade  makes  a  great  parade  in  his  ad- 
vertisements about  exposing  the  vulgar  tricks  of 
bogus  mediums,  but  he  says  nothing  about  the  se- 
crets of  his  own  pet  illusions.  His  exposes  are  made 
for  the  purpose  of  enhancing  his  own  mediumistic 
marvels. 

I  insert  a  verbatim  copy  of  the  handbills 
with  which  he  deluges  the  highways  and  byways  of 
American  cities  and  towns. 

PIERRE    L.    O.   A.    KEELER. 

Pierre  Keeler's  fame  as  a  producer  of  spirit  phe- 
nomena rests  largely  upon  his  materializing  stances. 
It  was  his  materializations  that  received  the  particu- 
lar attention  of  the  Seybert  Commission.  The  late 
Mr.  Henry  Seybert,  who  was  an  ardent  believer  in 
modern  Spiritualism,  presented  to  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  a  sum  of  money  to  found  a  chair  of 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  tfi 

philosophy,  with  the  proviso  that  the  University 
should  appoint  a  commission  to  investigate  "all  sys- 
tems of  morals,  religion  or  philosophy  which  assume 
to  represent  the  truth,  and  particularly  of  modern 
Spiritualism."  The  following  gentlemen  were  ac- 
cordingly appointed,  and  began  their  investigations: 
Dr.  William  Pepper,  Dr.  Joseph  Leidy,  Dr.  George 
A.  Koenig,  Prof.  R.  E.  Thompson,  Prof.  George  S. 
Fuller-ton,  and  Dr.  Horace  H.  Furness.  Subsequent- 
ly others  were  added  to  the  commission — Dr.  Cole- 
man  Sellers,  Dr.  James  W.  White,  Dr.  Calvin  B. 
Kneer,  and  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell.  Dr.  Pepper,  Pro- 
vost of  the  University,  was  ex-officio  chairman;  Dr. 
Furness,  acting  chairman,  and  Prof.  Fullerton,  sec- 
retary. 

Keeler's  materializations  are  thus  described  in  the 
report  of  the  commission: 

"On  May  27  the  Seybert  commission  held  a  meet- 
ing at  the  house  of  Mr.  Furness  at  8  p.  m.,  to  ex- 
amine the  phenomena  occurring  in  the  presence  of 
Mr.  Pierre  L.  O.  A.  Keeler,  a  professional  medium. 

"The  medium,  Mr.  Keeler,  is  a  young  man,  with 
well  cut  features,  curly  brown  hair,  a  small  sandy 
mustache,  and  rather  worn  and  anxious  expression; 


162  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

he  is  strongly  built,  about  5  feet  8  inches  high,  and 
with  rather  short,  quite  broad,  and  very  muscular 
hands  and  strong  wrists.  The  hands  were  examined 
by  Dr.  Pepper  and  Mr.  Fullerton  after  the  stance. 

"The  stance  was  held  in  Mr.  Furness'  drawing- 
room,  and  a  space  was  curtained  off  by  the  medium 
in  the  northeast  corner,  thus,  (Fig.  25) : 


\A 
\ 

CD\ 


G\ 


FIG.  25.      PIERRE  KEBLER'S  CABINET  SEANCE. 

"The  curtain  is  represented  by  A,  B;  C,  D  and  E 
are  three  chairs,  placed  in  front  of  the  curtain  by  the 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  163 

medium,  in  one  of  which  (E)  he  afterwards  sat;  G  de- 
notes the  position  of  Mrs.  Keeler;  F  is  a  small  table, 
placed  within  the  curtain,  and  upon  which  was  a  tam- 
bourine, a  'guitar,  two  bells,  a  hammer,  a  metallic 
ring;  the  stars  show  the  positions  of  the  spectators,  who 
sat  in  a  double  row — the  two  stars  at  the  top  facing  the 
letter  A  indicate  the  positions  taken  by  Mrs.  Kase  and 
Col.  Kase,  friends  of  Mr.  Keeler,  according  to  the 
directions  of  the  medium. 

"The  curtain,  or  rather  curtains,  were  of  black  mus- 
lin, and  arranged  as  follows :  There  was  a  plain  black 
curtain,  which  was  stretched  across  the  corner,  falling 
to  the  floor.  Its  height,  when  in  position,  was  53 
inches;  it  was  made  thus: 


.    a'  . 


\\ 

I    If 


>• 

•=-    l» 

ill 


FIG.  26.     PIERRE  KEELBR'S  CABINET  CURTAIN. 

"The  cord  which  held  the  curtain  was  1,  2,  and  the 
flaps  which  are  represented  as  standing  above  it  (A, 


164  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

B,  C,  etc.),  fell  down  over  Al,  Bl,  Cl,  etc.,  and  could 
be  made  to  cover  the  shoulders  of  one  sitting  with  his 
back  against  the  curtain.  A  black  curtain  was  also 
pinned  against  the  wall,  in  the  space  curtained  off, 
partly  covering  it.  Another  curtain  was  added  to  the 
one  pictured,  as  will  be  described  presently. 

"The  medium  asked  Col.  Kase  to  say  a  few  words 
as  to  the  necessity  of  observing  the  conditions,  need 
of  harmony,  etc.  And  then  the  medium  himself 
spoke  a  few  words  of  similar  import.  He  then  drew 
the  curtain  along  the  cord  (1,  2,)  and  fastened  it; 
placed  three  wooden  chairs  in  front  of  the  curtain,  as 
indicated  in  the  diagram,  and,  saying  he  needed  to 
form  a  battery,  asked  Miss  Agnes  Irwin  to  sit  in  chair 
D,  and  Mr.  Yost  in  chair  C,  the  medium  himself  sit- 
ting in  chair  E.  A  black  curtain  was  then  fastened 
by  Mrs.  Keeler  over  Mr.  Keeler,  Miss  Irwin  and  Mr. 
Yost,  being  fastened  at  G,  between  E  and  D,  between 
D  and  C,  and  beyond  A;  thus  entirely  covering  the 
three  sitting  in  front  of  the  stretched  curtain  up  to 
their  necks;  and  when  the  flaps  before  mentioned 
were  pulled  down  over  their  shoulders,  nothing  could 
be  seen  but  the  head  of  each. 

"Before  the  last  curtain  was  fastened  over  them, 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  ^5 

the  medium  placed  both  his  hands  upon  the  forearm 
and  wrist  of  Miss  Irwin,  the  sleeve  being  pulled  up 
for  the  purpose,  and  Miss  Irwin  grasped  with  her 
right  hand  the  left  wrist  of  Mr.  Yost,  his  right  hand 
being  in  sight  to  the  right  of  the  curtain. 

"After  some  piano  music  the  medium  said  he  felt 
no  power  from  this  'battery/  and  asked  Mrs.  E.  D. 
Gillespie  to  take  Miss  Irwin's  place.  Hands  and  cur- 
tains were  arranged  as  before.  The  lights  were 
turned  down  until  the  room  was  quite  dim.  During 
the  singing  the  medium  turned  to  speak  to  Mr.  Yost, 
and  his  body,  which  had  before  faced  rather  away 
from  the  two  other  persons  of  the  'battery*  (which  pen- 
sition  would  have  brought  his  right  arm  out  in  front 
of  the  stretched  curtain),  was  now  turned  the  other 
way,  so  that  had  he  released  his  grasp  upon  Mrs.  Gil- 
lespie's  arm,  his  own  right  arin  could  have  had  free 
play  in  the  curtained  space  behind  him.  His  left 
knee  also  no  longer  stood  out  under  the  curtain  in 
front,  but  showed  a  change  of  position. 

"At  this  time  Mrs.  Gillespie  declared  she  felt  a 
touch,  and  soon  after  so  did  Mr.  Yost.  The  me- 
dium's body  was  distinctly  inclined  toward  Mr.  Yost 
at  this  time.  Mrs.  Gillespie  said  she  felt  taps,  but  de- 


166  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

clared  that,  to  the  best  of  her  knowledge,  she  still  felt 
the  medium's  two  hands  upon  her  arm. 

"Raps  indicated  that  the  spirit,  George  Christy, 
was  present.  As  one  of  those  present  played  on  the 
piano,  the  tambourine  was  played  in  the  curtained 
space  and  thrown  over  the  curtain;  bells  were  rung; 
the  guitar  was  thrummed  a  little.  At  this  time  the 
medium's  face  was  toward  Mrs.  Gillespie,  and  his 
right  side  toward  the  curtain.  His  body  was  further 
in  against  the  curtain  than  either  of  the  others. 
Upon  being  asked,  Mrs.  Gillespie  then  said  she 
thought  she  still  felt  two  hands  upon  her  arm. 

"The  guitar  was  then  thrust  out,  at  least  the  end  of 
it  was,  at  the  bottom  of  the  curtain,  between  Mrs.  Gil- 
lespie and  the  medium.  Mrs.  Keeler  drawing  the 
curtain  from  over  the  toes  of  the  medium's  boots,  to 
show  where  his  feet  were;  the  guitar  was  thrummed 
a  little.  Had  the  medium's  right  arm  been  free  the 
thrumming  could  have  been  done  quite  easily  with 
one  hand.  Afterward  the  guitar  was  elevated  above 
the  curtain;  the  tambourine,  which  was  by  Mrs. 
Keeler  placed  upon  a  stick  held  up  within  the  inclos- 
ure,  was  made  to  whirl  by  the  motion  of  the  stick. 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  ify 

The  phenomena  occurred  successively,  not  simultan- 
eously. 

"When  the  guitar  was  held  up,  and  when  the  tam- 
bourine was  made  to  whirl,  both  of  these  were  to  the 
right  of  the  medium,  chiefly  behind  Mrs.  Gillespie; 
they  were  just  where  they  might  have  been  produced 
by  the  right  arm  of  the  medium,  had  it  been  free. 
Two  clothes-pins  were  then  passed  over  the  curtain, 
and  they  were  used  in  drumming  to  piano  music. 
They  could  easily  be  used  in  drumming  by  one  hand 
alone,  the  ringers  being  thrust  into  them.  The 
pins  were  afterward  thrown  out  tiver  the  cur- 
tain. Mr.  Sellers  picked  one  up  as  soon  as  it  fell,  and 
found  it  warm  in  the  split,  as  though  it  had  been 
worn.  The  drumming  was  probably  upon  the  tam- 
bourine. 

"A  hand  was  seen  moving  rapidly  with  a  trembling 
motion — which  prevented  it  from  being  clearly  ob- 
served— above  the  back  curtain,  between  Mr.  Yost 
and  Mrs.  Gillespie.  Paper  was  passed  over  the  cur- 
tain into  the  cabinet  and  notes  were  soon  thrown  out. 
The  notes  could  have  been  written  upon  the  small 
table  within  the  enclosure  by  the  right  hand  of  the 
medium,  had  it  been  free.  Mrs.  Keeler  then  passed 


168  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

a  coat  over  the  curtain,  and  an  arm  was  passed 
through  the  sleeve,  the  fingers,  with  the  cuff  around 
them  being  shown  over  the  curtain.  They  were  kept 
moving,  and  a  close  scrutiny  was  not  possible. 

"Mr.  Furness  was  then  invited  to  hold  a  writing 
tablet  in  front  of  the  curtain,  when  the  hand,  almost 
concealed  by  the  coat-sleeve  and  the  flaps  mentioned 
as  attached  to  the  curtain,  wrote  with  a  pencil  on  the 
tablet.  The  writing  was  rapid,  and  the  hand,  when 
not  writing,  was  kept  in  constant,  tremulous  motion. 
The  hand  was  put  forth,  in  this  case  not  over  the  top 
curtain,  but  came  from  under  the  flap,  and  could 
easily  have  been  the  medium's  right  hand  were  it  dis- 
engaged, for  it  was  about  on  a  level  with  his  shoulder 
and  to  his  right,  between  him  and  Mrs.  Gillespie. 
Mr.  Furness  was  allowed  to  pass  his  hand  close  to  the 
curtain  and  grasp  the  hand  for  a  moment.  It  was  a 
right  hand. 

"Soon  after  the  medium  complained  of  fatigue,  and 
the  sitting  was  discontinued.  It  was  declared  by  the 
Spiritualists  present  to  be  a  fairly  successful  seance. 
When  the  curtains  were  removed  the  small  table  in 
the  enclosure  was  found  to  be  overturned,  and  the 
bells,  hammer,  etc.,  on  the  floor. 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  169 

"It  is  interesting  to  note  the  space  within  which 
all  the  manifestations  occurred.  They  were,  without 
exception,  where  they  would  have  been  had  they  been 
produced  by  the  medium's  right  arm.  Nothing  hap- 
pened to  the  left  of  the  medium,  nor  very  far  over  to 
the  right.  The  sphere  of  activity  was  between  the 
medium  and  Mr.  Yost,  and  most  of  the  phenomena 
occurred,  as,  for  example,  the  whirling  of  the  tam- 
bourine, behind  Mrs.  Gillespie. 

"The  front  curtain — that  is,  the  main  curtain  which 
hung  across  the  corner — was  85  inches  in  length,  and 
the  cord  which  supported  it  53  inches  from  the  floor. 
The  three  chairs  which  were  placed  in  front  of  it  were 
side  by  side,  and  it  would  not  have  been  difficult  for 
the  medium  to  reach  across  and  touch  Mr.  Yost. 
When  Mrs.  Keeler  passed  objects  over  the  curtain,  she 
invariably  passed  them  to  the  right  of  the  medium, 
although  her  position  was  on  his  left;  and  the  clothes- 
pins, paper,  pencil,  etc.,  were  all  passed  over  at  a  point 
where  the  medium's  right  hand  could  easily  have 
reached  them. 

"To  have  produced  the  phenomena  by  using  his 
right  hand  the  medium  would  have  had  to  pass  it 
under  the  curtain  at  his  back.  This  curtain  was  not 


170  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

quite  hidden  by  the  front  one  at  the  end,  near  the 
medium,  and  this  end  both  Mr.  Sellers  and  Dr.  Pep- 
per saw  rise  at  the  beginning  of  the  stance.  The 
only  thing  worthy  of  consideration,  as  opposed  to  a 
natural  explanation  of  the  phenomena,  was  the  grasp 
of  the  medium's  hand  on  Mrs.  Gillespie's  arm. 

"The  grasp  was  evidently  a  tight  one  above  the 
wrist,  for  the  arm  was  bruised  for  about  four  inches. 
There  was  no  evidence  of  a  similar  pressure  above 
that,  as  the  marks  on  the  arm  extended  in  all  about 
five  or  six  inches  only.  The  pressure  was  sufficient 
to  destroy  the  sensibility  of  the  forearm,  and  it  is 
doubtful  whether  Mrs.  Gillespie,  with  her  arm  in  such 
a  condition  could  distinguish  between  the  grasp  of 
one  hand,  with  a  divided  pressure  (applied  by  the  two 
last  fingers  and  the  thumb  and  index)  and  a  double 
grip  by  two  hands.  Three  of  our  number,  Mr.  Sel- 
lers, Mr.  Furness,  and  Dr.  White,  can,  with  one  hand, 
perfectly  simulate  the  double  grip. 

"It  is  specially  worthy  of  note  that  Mrs.  Gillespie 
declared  that,  when  the  medium  first  laid  hold  of  her 
arms  with  his  right  hand  before  the  curtain  was  put 
over  them,  it  was  with  an  undergrip,  and  she  felt  his 
right  arm  under  her  left.  But  when  the  medium 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  171 

asked  her  if  she  felt  both  his  hands  upon  her  arm,  and 
she  said,  yes,  she  could  feel  the  grasp,  but  no  arm 
under  hers,  though  she  moved  her  elbow  around  to 
find  it — she  felt  a  hand,  but  not  an  arm,  and  at  no 
time  during  the  seance  did  she  find  that  arm. 

"It  should  be  noted  that  both  the  medium  and  Mr. 
Yost  took  off  their  coats  before  being  covered  with 
the  curtain.  It  was  suggested  by  Dr.  Pepper  that 
this  might  have  been  required  by  the  medium  as  a 
precaution  against  movements  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Yost.  The  white  shirt-sleeves  would  have  shown 
against  the  black  background." 

I  attended  a  number  of  Keeler's  materializing  exhi- 
bitions in  Washington,  D.  C,  in  the  spring  of  1895, 
and  it  is  my  opinion  that  the  writing  of  his  so-called 
spirit  messages  is  a  simple  affair,  the  very  long  and 
elaborate  ones  being  written  before  the  seance  begins 
and  the  short  ones  by  the  medium  during  the  sitting. 
The  latter  are  done  in  a  scrawling,  uncertain  hand, 
just  such  penmanship  one  would  execute  when  blind- 
folded. 

The  evidence  of  Dr.  G.  H.  La  Fetra,  of  Washington, 
D.  C.,  is  sufficiently  convincing  on  this  point.  Said  Dr. 
La  Fetra  to  me:  "Some  years  ago  I  went  with  a  friend, 


jy2  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

Col.    Edward   Hayes,   to  one   of   Mr.    Keeler's   light 
seances.     It  was  rather  early  in  the  evening,  and  but  few 
persons  had  assembled.     Upon  the  mantel  piece  of  the 
seance-room  were  several  tablets  of  paper.  Unobserved, 
I  took  up  these  tablets,  one  at  a  time,  and  drew  the  blade 
of  my  pen-knife  across  one  end  of  each  of  them,  so  that 
I  might  identify  the  slips  of  paper  torn  therefrom  by 
the  nicks  in  them.     In  a  little  while,  the  room  was  filled 
with  people,  and  the  seance  began;  the  gas  being  lowered 
to  a  dim  religious  light.     When  the  time  came  for  the 
writing,  Mr.  Keeler  requested  that  some  of  the  tablets  of 
paper  on  the  mantel  be  passed  into  the  cabinet.     This 
was   done.     Various  persons   present  received   'spirit' 
communications,  the  slips  of  paper  being  thrown  over 
the  curtain  of  the  cabinet  by  a  'materialized'  hand.  Some 
gentleman  picked  up  the  papers  and  read  them,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  spectators;  afterwards  he  laid  aside  those 
not  claimed  by  anybody.     Some  of  these  'spirit*  com- 
munications covered  almost  an  entire  slip.    These  were 
carefully  written,  some  or  them  in  a  fine  hand.    The 
short    messages    were    roughly    scrawled.     After    the 
seance,  Col.  Hayes  and  myself  quietly  pocketed  a  dozen 
or  more  of  the  slips.     The  next  morning  at  my  office  we 
carefully  examined  them.     In  every  instance,  we  found 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  173 

that  the  well-written,  lengthy  messages  were  inscribed  on 
imnicked  slips,  the  short  ones  being  written  on  nicked 
slips." 

To  me,  this  evidence  of  Dr.  La  Fetra  seems  mostcom- 
clusive,  proving  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that  Kee- 
ler  prepared  his  long  communications  before  the  seance 
and  had  them  concealed  upon  his  person,  throwing  them 
out  of  the  cabinet  at  the  proper  moment.  He  used  the 
nicked  tablets  for  his  short  messages,  written  on  the  spot, 
thereby  completely  revealing  his  method  of  operating  to 
the  ingenious  investigator. 

The  late  Dr.  Leonard  Caughey,  of  Baltimore, 
Maryland,  an  intimate  friend  of  the  writer,  made  a 
specialty  of  anti-Spiritualistic  tricks,  and  among 
others  performed  this  cabinet  test  of  Keeler's.  He 
bought  the  secret  from  a  broken-down  medium  for  a 
few  dollars,  and  added  to  it  certain  effects  of  his  own, 
that  far  surpassed  any  of  Keeler's.  The  writer  has 
seen  Dr.  Caughey  give  the  tests,  and  create  the  ut- 
most astonishment.  His  improvement  on  the  trick 
consisted  in  the  use  of  a  spring  clasp  like  those  used 
by  gentlemen  bicycle  riders  to  keep  their  trousers  in 
at  the  ankles.  One  end  terminated  in  a  soft  rubber 
or  chamois  skin  tip,  shaped  like  a  thumb,  the  other 


174  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

end  had  four  representations  of  fingers.  Two  wire 
rings  were  soldered  on  the  back  of  the  clasp.  This 
apparatus  he  had  concealed  under  his  vest.  Before 
the  curtain  of  the  cabinet  was  drawn,  Dr.  Caughey 
grasped  the  arm  of  the  lady  on  his  right  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner:  The  thumb  of  his  left  hand  under 
her  wrist,  the  fingers  extended  above  it;  the  thumb  of 
his  right  hand  restin^  on  the  thumb  of  the  left,  the  fingers 
lightly  resting  on  the  fingers  of  the  left  hand.  As  soon  as 
the  curtain  was  fastened  he  extended  the  fourth  and  in- 
dex fingers  of  the  left  hand  to  the  fullest  extent  and  press- 
ed hard  upon  the  lady's  arm,  relaxing  at  the  same  time 
the  pressure  of  his  second  and  third  fingers.  This 
movement  exactly  simulates  the  grasp  of  two  hands, 
and  enables  the  medium  to  take  away  his  right  hand 
altogether.  Dr.  Caughey  then  took  his  spring  clasp, 
opened  it  by  inserting  his  thumb  and  first  finger  in 
the  soldered  rings  above  mentioned,  and  lightly  fas- 
tened it  on  the  lady's  arm  near  the  wrist,  relaxing  the 
pressure  of  the  first  and  fourth  fingers  of  the  left  hand 
at  the  same  moment.  "I  will  slide  my  right  hand 
along  your  arm,  and  grasp  you  near  the  elbow.  It 
will  relieve  the  pressure  about  your  wrist;  besides  be 
more  convincing  to  you  that  there  is  no'  trickery." 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  175 

So  saying,  he  quickly  slid  the  apparatus  along  her 
arm,  and  left  it  in  the  position  spoken  of.  This  pro- 
duces a  perfect  illusion,  the  clasp  with  its  trick  thumb 
and  fingers  working  to  perfection. 

This  apparatus  may  also  be  used  in  the  following 
manner :  Roll  up  your  sleeves  and  exhibit  your  hands  to 
the  sitter.  Tell  him  you  are  going  to  stand  behind 
him  and  grasp  his  arms  firmly  near  the  shoulders. 
Take  your  position  immediately  under  the  gas  jet. 
Ask  him  to  please  lower  the  light.  Produce  the  trick 
clasps,  distend  them  by  means  of  your  thumbs  and 
fingers,  and  after  the  gas  is  lowered,  grasp  the  sitter  in 
the  manner  described.  Remove  your  fingers  and 
thumbs  lightly  from  the  clasps  and  perform  various 
mediumistic  evolutions,  such  as  writing  a  message  on 
a  pad  or  slate  placed  on  the  sitter's  head;  strike  him 
gently  on  his  cheek  with  a  damp  glove,  etc.  When 
the  seance  is  over,  insert  your  fingers  and  thumbs  in 
the  soldered  rings,  remove  the  clasps  and  conceal 
them  quickly. 

EUSAPIA   PALADINO, 

The  materializing  medium  who  has  caused  the 
greatest  sensation  since  Home's  death  is  Eusapia 


176  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

Paladino,  an  Italian  peasant  woman.  Signor  Da- 
miani,  of  Florence,  Italy,  discovered  her  alleged  psy- 
chical powers  in  1875,  and  brought  her  into  notice. 
An  Italian  Count  was  so  impressed  with  the  manifes- 
tations witnessed  in  the  presence  of  the  illiterate  peas- 


FIG.  27.      EUSAPIA  PALADINO. 

ant  woman,  that  he  insisted  upon  "a  commission  of 
scientific  men  being  called  to  investigate  them."  In 
the  year  1884,  this  commission  held  seances  with  Eu- 
sapia,  and  afterwards  declared  that  the  phenomena 


MATERIALIZATIONS. 


177 


178  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

witnessed  were  inexplicable,  and  unquestionably  the 
result  of  forces  transcending  ordinary  experience.  In 
the  year  1892  another  commission  was  formed  in 
Milan  to  test  Eusapia's  powers  as  a  medium,  and  from 
this  period  her  fame  dates,  as  the  most  remarkable 
psychic  of  modern  times.  The  report  drawn  up  by 
this  commission  was  signed  by  Giovanni  Schiaparelli, 
director  of  the  Astronomical  Observatory,  Milan;  Carl 
du  Prel,  doctor  of  philosophy,  Munich;  Angelo  Brof- 
ferio,  professor  of  physics  in  the  Royal  School  of 
Agriculture,  Portici;  G.  B.  Ermacora,  doctor  of 
physics;  Giorgio  Finzi,  doctor  of  physics.  At 
some  of  the  sittings  were  present  Charles  Richet 
and  the  famous  Cesare  Lombroso.  The  conclusion 
arrived  at  by  these  gentlemen  was  that  Eusa- 
pia's mediumistic  phenomena  were  most  worthy  of 
scientific  attention,  and  were  unfathomable.  The  me- 
dium reaped  the  benefit  of  this  notoriety,  and  gave 
sittings  to  hundreds  of  investigators  among  the  Ital- 
ian nobility,  charging  as  high  as  $500  for  a  single 
stance.  At  last  she  was  exposed  by  a  clever  Ameri- 
can, Dr.  Richard  Hodgson,  of  Boston,  secretary  of 
the  American  branch  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Re- 
search. His  account  of  the  affair,  communicated  to 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  179 

the  New  York  Herald,  Jan.  10,  1897,  is  very  inter- 
esting. Speaking  of  the  report  of  the  Milan  commis- 
sion, he  says: 

"Their  report  confessed  to  seeing  and  hearing 
many  strange  things,  although  they  believed  they  had 
the  hands  and  feet  of  the  psychic  so  closely  held  that 
she  could  have  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  manifesta- 
tions. 

"Chairs  were  moved,  bells  were  rung,  imprints  of 
fingers  were  made  on  smoked  paper  and  soft  clay,  ap- 
paritions of  hands  appeared  on  slightly  luminous 
backgrounds,  the  chair  of  the  medium  and  the  me- 
dium herself  were  lifted  to  the  table,  the  sound  of 
trumpets,  the  contact  of  a  seemingly  human  face,  the 
touch  of  human  hands,  warm  and  moist,  all  were  felt 

"Most  of  these  phenomena  were  repeated,  and  the 
members  of  the  commission  were,  with  two  excep- 
tions, satisfied  that  no  known  power  could  have  pro- 
duced them.  Professor  Richet  did  not  sign  the  re- 
port, but  induced  Signora  Eusapia  to  go  to  an  island 
he  owned  in  the  Mediterranean,  where  other  exacting 
tests  were  made  under  other  scientific  eyes.  The  in- 
vestigators all  agreed  that  the  demonstrations  could 
not  be  accounted  for  by  ordinary  forces. 


l8o  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

"I  have  found  in  my  experience  that  learned  scien- 
tific men  are  the  most  easily  duped  of  any  in  the 
world.  Instead  of  having  a  cold,  inert  piece  of  matter 
to  investigate  by  exact  processes  and  microscopic  in- 
spections, they  had  a  clever,  bright  woman  doing  her 
best  to  mystify  them.  They  could  not  cope  with  her. 

"Professor  Richet  replied  to  an  article  I  wrote,  up- 
holding his  position,  and  brought  SignoraEusapiaPala- 
dino  to  Cambridge,  England,  where  I  joined  the  investi- 
gating committee.  In  the  party  were  Professor 
Lodge,  of  Liverpool;  Professor  F.  M.  C.  Meyer,  sec- 
retary of  the  British  Society  for  Psychical  Research; 
Professor  Richet  and  Mr.  Henry  Sedgwick,  president 
of  the  society. 

"I  found  that  the  psychic,  though  giving  a  great 
variety  of  events,  confined  them  to  a  very  limited 
scope.  She  was  seated  during  the  tests  at  the  end  of 
a  rectangular  table  and  when  the  table  was  lifted  it 
rose  up  directly  at  the  other  end.  It  was  always  so 
arranged  that  she  was  in  the  dark,  even  if  the  rest  of 
the  table  was  in  the  light;  in  the  so-called  light 
stances  it  was  not  light,  the  lamp  being  placed  in  an 
adjoining  room.  There  were  touches,  punches  and 
blows  given,  minor  objects  moved,  some  near  and 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  181 

some  further  away;  the  outline  of  faces  and  hands  ap- 
peared, etc. 

"When  I  came  to  hold  her  hands  I  found  a  key  to 
the  mystery. 

"It  was  chiefly  that  she  made  one  hand  and  one 
foot  do  the  work  of  both,  by  adroit  substitution. 
Given  a  free  hand  and  a  free  foot,  and  nearly  all  the 
phenomena  can  be  explained.  She  has  very  strong, 
supple  hands,  with  deft  ringers  and  great  coolness  and 
intelligence. 

"This  is  the  way  she  substituted  one  hand  for  both. 
She  placed  one  of  her  hands  over  A's  hand  and  the 
other  under  B's  hand.  Then,  in  the  movements  of 
the  arms  during  the  manifestation,  she  worked  her 
hands  toward  each  other  until  they  rested  one  upon 
the  other,  with  A's  hand  at  the  bottom  of  the  pile,  B's 
at  the  top  and  both  her  own,  one  upon  the  other,  be- 
tween. To  draw  out  one  hand  and  leave  one  and  yet 
have  the  investigators  feel  that  they  still  had  a  hand 
was  easy. 

"With  this  hand  free  and  in  darkness  there  were 
great  possibilities.  There  were  strings,  also,  as  I  be- 
lieve, which  were  attached  to  different  objects  and 
moved  them.  The  dim  outlines  of  faces  and  hands 


182  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

seen  were  clever  representations  of  the  medium's  own 
free  hand  in  various  shapes. 

"It  is  thought  that  if  a  medium  was  kept  clapping 
her  hands  she  could  do  nothing  with  them,  but  one 
of  the  investigators  found  the  Signora  slapping  her 
face  with  one  hand,  producing  just  the  same  sound  as 
if  her  hands  met,  while  the  other  hand  was  free  to 
produce  mysterious  phenomena. 

"I  have  tried  the  experiment  of  shifting  hands  when 
those  who  held  them  knew  they  were  going  to  be 
tricked,  and  yet  they  did  not  discover  when  I  made 
the  exchange.  I  am  thoroughly  satisfied  that  Sig- 
nora Eusapia  Paladino  is  a  clever  trickster." 

Eusapia  Paladino  was  by  no  means  disconcerted 
by  Dr.  Hodgson's  expos£,  but  continued  giving  her 
seances.  At  the  present  writing  she  is  continuing  them 
in  France  with  a  number  of  new  illusions.  Many  who 
have  had  sittings  with  her  declare  that  she  is  able  to 
move  heavy  objects  without  contact.  Possibly  this  is 
due  to  jugglery,  or  it  may  be  due  to  some  psychic 
force  as  yet  not  understood. 

F.   W.   TABOR. 

Mr.  F.  W.  Tabor  is  a  materializing  medium  whose 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  ^3 

specialty  is  the  trumpet  test  for  the  production  of 
spirit  voices.  I  had  a  sitting  with  him  at  the  house 
of  Mr.  X,  of  Washington,  D.  C,  on  the  night  of  Jan. 
10,  1897.  Seven  persons,  including  the  medium,  sat 
around  an  ordinary-sized  table  in  Mr.  X— 's  drawing 
room,  and  formed  a  chain  of  hands,  in  the  following 
manner:  Each  person  placed  his  or  her  hands  on 
the  table  with  the  thumbs  crossed,  and  the  little  fin- 
gers of  each  hand  touching  the  little  fingers  of  the  sit- 
ters on  the  right  and  left.  A  musical  box  was  set  go- 
ing and  the  light  was  turned  out  by  Mr.  X — ,  who 
broke  the  circle  for  that  purpose,  but  immediately  re- 
sumed his  old  position  at  the  table.  A  large  speak- 
ing trumpet  of  tin  about  three  feet  long  had  been 
placed  upright  in  the  center  of  the  table,  and  near  it 
was  a  pad  of  paper,  and  pencils.  We  waited  patiently 
for  some  little  time,  the  monotony  being  relieved  by 
operatic  airs  from  the  music  box,  and  the  singing  of 
hymns  by  the  sitters.  There  were  convulsive  twitch- 
ings  of  the  hands  and  feet  of  the  medium,  who  com- 
plained of  tingling  sensations  in  those  members.  The 
first  "phenomena"  produced  were  balls  of  light  danc- 
ing like  will-o'-the-wisps  over  the  table,  and  the  ma- 
terialization of  a  luminous  spirit  hand.  Taps  upon  the 


184  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

table  signalled  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Tabor's  spirit  con- 
trol, "]im,"  a  little  newsboy,  of  San  Francisco,  who 
was  run  over  some  years  ago  by  a  street  car.  The 
medium  was  the  first  person  who  picked  up  the 
wounded  waif  and  endeavored  to  administer  to  him, 
but  without  avail.  "Jim"  died  soon  after,  and  his  dis- 
embodied spirit  became  the  medium's  control.  Soon 
the  trumpet  arose  from  the  table  and  floated  over  the 
heads  of  the  sitters,  and  the  voice  of  "Jim"  was  heard, 
sepulchral  and  awe-inspiring,  through  the  instrument. 
Subsequently,  messages  of  an  impersonal  character 
were  communicated  to  Mr.  X —  and  his  wife.  At  one 
time  the  trumpet  was  heard  knocking  against  the 
chandelier.  During  the  s  ance  several  of  the  ladies 
experienced  the  clasp  of  a  ghostly  hand  about  their 
wrists,  and  considerable  excitement  was  occasioned 
thereby. 

It  is  not  a  difficult  matter  to  explain  this  trumpet 
test.  It  hinges  on  one  fact,  freedom  of  the  medium's 
right  hand!  In  all  of  these  holding  tests,  the  medium 
employs  a  subterfuge  to  release  his  hands  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  sitter  on  his  right.  During  his  con- 
vulsive twitchings,  he  quickly  jerks  his  right  hand 
away,  but  immediately  extends  the  fingers  of  his  left 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  185 

hand,  and  connects  the  index  fingers  with  the  little 
finger  of  the  sitter's  left  hand,  thereby  completing  the 
chain,  or  "battery,"  as  it  is  technically  called.  Were 
the  medium  to  use  his  thumb  in  making  the  connec- 
tion the  secret  would  be  revealed,  but  the  index  finger 
of  his  left  hand  sufficiently  simulates  a  little  finger,  and 
in  the  darkness  the  sitter  is  deceived.  The  right  hand 
once  released,  the  medium  manipulates  the  trumpet 
and  the  phosphorescent  spirit  hands  to>  his  heart's  con- 
tent. Sometimes  he  utilizes  the  telescopic  rod,  or  a  pair  of 
steel  "crazy  tongs,"  to  elevate  the  trumpet  to  the  ceil- 
ing. This  holding  test  is  absurdly  simple  and  perhaps 
for  that  reason  is  so  convincing. 

Mr.  Tabor  has  another  method  of  holding  which  is 
far  more  deceptive  than  the  above.  I  am  indebted  to 
the  "Revelations  of  a  Spirit  Medium"  for  an  explanation 
of  this  test.  "The  investigators  are  seated  in  a  circle 
around  the  table,  male  and  female  alternating.  The 
person  sitting  on  the  medium's  right — 'for  he  sits  in  the 
circle — grasps  the  medium's  right  wrist  in  his  left  hand, 
while  his  own  right  wrist  is  held  by  the  sitter  on  his 
right  and  this  is  repeated  clear  around  the  circle.  This 
makes  each  sitter  hold  the  right  wrist  of  his  left 
hand  neighbor  in  his  left  hand,  while  his  own  right 


186  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

hand  wrist  is  held  in  the  left  hand  of  his  neighbor  on 
the  left.  Each  one's  hands  are  thus  secured  and  en- 
gaged, including  the  medium's.  It  will  be  seen  that 
no  one  of  the  sitters  can  have  the  use  of  his  or  her 
hands  without  one  or  the  other  of  their  neighbors 
knowing  it.  As  each  hand  was  held  by  a  separate  per- 
son, you  cannot  understand  how  he  [the  medium] 
could  get  the  use  of  either  of  them  except  the  one  on 
his  right  was  a  confederate.  Such  was  not  the  case, 
and  still  he  did  have  the  use  of  one  hand,  the  right  one. 
But  how?  He  took  his  place  before  the  light  was 
turned  down,  and  those  holding  him  say  he  did  not 
let  go  for  an  instant  during  the  stance.  He  did 
though,  after  the  light  was  turned  out  for  the  purpose 
of  getting  his  handkerchief  to  blow  his  nose.  After 
blowing  his  nose  he  requested  the  sitter  to  again  take 
his  wrist,  which  is  done,  but  this  time  it  is  the  wrist 
of  the  left  hand  instead  of  the  right.  He  has  crossed 
his  legs  and  there  is  but  one  knee  to  be  felt,  hence  the 
sitter  on  the  right  does  not  feel  that  she  is  reaching 
across  the  right  knee  and  thinks  it  is  the  left  knee  which 
she  does  feel  to  be:  the  right.  He  has  let  his  hand  slip 
down  until  instead  of  holding  the  sitter  on  his  left  by 
the  wrist  he  has  him  by  the  ringers,  thus  allowing  him 


MATERIALIZATIONS.  187 

a  little  more  distance,  and  preventing  the  left  hand 
sitter  using  the  hand  to  feel  about  and  discover  the 
right  hand  sitter's  hand  on  the  wrist  of  the  hand  hold- 
ing his.  You  will  see,  now,  that  although  both  sitters 
are  holding  the  same  hand  each  one  thinks  he  is  hold- 
ing the  one  on  his  or  her  side  of  the  medium.  The 
balance  of  the  seance  is  easy." 

An  amusing  incident  happened  during  my  sitting 
with  Mr.-  Tabor.  Growing  somewhat  weary  waiting 
for  him  to  "manifest,"  I  determined  to  undertake  some 
materializations  on  my  own  account.  I  adopted  the 
subterfuge  of  getting  my  right  hand  loose  from  the 
lady  on  my  right,  and  produced  the  spirit  hand  that 
clasped  the  wrist  of  several  of  the  sitters  in  the  circle. 
Mr.  X —  asked  "Jim"  if  everything  was  all  right  in 
the  circle,  every  hand  promptly  joined,  and  the  mag- 
netic conditions  perfect.  "Jim"  responded  with  three 
affirmative  taps  on  the  table  top.  I  congratulate  my- 
self on  having  deceived  "Jim,"  a  spirit  operating  in 
the  fourth  dimension  of  space,  and  supposedly  cogni- 
zant of  all  that  was  transpiring  at  the  seance.  Once, 
when  the  medium  was  floating  the  trumpet  over  my 
head,  I  grasped  the  instrument  and  dashed  it  on  the 
table.  He  made  no  further  attempt  to  manipulate  the 


188  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

trumpet  in  my  direction,  and  very  shortly  brought  the 
seance  to  a  close.  No  written  communications  were 
received  during  the  evening. 

4.    Spirit  Photography. 

You  may  deceive  the  human  eye,  say  the  advocates 
of  spirit  materializations,  but  you  cannot  deceive  the 
eye  of  science,  the  photographic  camera.  Then  they 
triumphantly  produce  the  spirit  photograph  as  in- 
dubitable evidence  of  the  reality  of  ghostly  materiali- 
zations. "Spirit  photography,"  says  the  late  Alex- 
andre  Herrmann,  in  an  article  on  magic,  published  in 
the  Cosmopolitan  Magazine,  "was  the  invention  of 
a  man  in  London,  and  for  ten  years  Spiritualists  ac- 
cepted the  pictures  as  genuine  representations  of  orig- 
inals in  the  spirit  land.  The  snap  kodak  has  super- 
seded the  necessity  of  the  explanation  of  spirit  pho- 
tography." 

To  be  more  explicit,  there  are  two  ways  of  produc- 
ing spirit  photographs,  by  double  printing  and  by 
double  exposure.  In  the  first,  the  scene  is  printed  from 
one  negative,  and  the  spirit  printed  in  from  another. 
In  the  second  method,  the  group  with  the  friendly 
spook  in  proper  position  is  arranged,  and  the  lens  of 


SPIRIT  PHOTOGRAPHY.  189 

the  camera  uncovered,  half  of  the  required  exposure 
being  given;  then  the  lens  is  capped,  and  the  person 
doing  duty  as  the  sheeted  ghost  gets  out  of  sight,  and 
the  exposure  is  completed.  The  result  is  very  effect- 
ive when  the  picture  is  printed,  the  real  persons  being 
represented  sharp  and  well  defined,  while  the  ghost  is 
but  a  hazy  outline,  transparent,  through  which  the 
background  shows. 

Every  one  interested  in  psychic  phenomena  who 
makes  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Capital  of  the  Nation  visits 
the  house  of  Dr.  Theodore  Hansmann.  For  ten  years 
Dr.  Hansmann  has  been  an  ardent  student  of  Spirit- 
ualism, and  has  had  sittings  with  many  celebrated  me- 
diums. The  walls  of  his  office  are  literally  covered 
with  spirit  pictures  of  famous  people  of  history,  exe- 
cuted by  spirits  under  supposed  test  conditions. 
There  are  drawings  in  color  by  Raphael,  Michel  An- 
gelo,  and  others.  In  one  corner  of  the  room  is  a 
book-case  filled  with  slates,  upon  the  surfaces  of  which 
are  messages  from  the  famous  dead,  attested  by  their 
signatures. 

In  the  fall  of  1895,  a  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  Herald  interviewed  Doctor  Hansmann  on  the 
subject  of  spirit  photographs,  and  subsequently  visited 


I$0  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

the  United  States  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  where  an  in- 
terview was  had  with  Mr.  Dinwiddie,  an  expert  pho- 
tographer. Here  is  the  substance  of  this  scond  in- 
terview, published  in  the  Herald,  Nov.  9,  1895. 

"Dr.  Hansmann's  collection  of  'spirit'  photographs 
is  most  interesting.  There  is  one  with  the  face  of  the 
Empress  Josephine,  and  on  the  same  plate  is  the  head 
of  Professor  Darius  Lyman,  for  a  long  time  Chief  of 
the  Bureau  of  Navigation.  The  head  of  the  Empress 
Josephine  has  a  diadem  around  it,  and  the  lights  and 
shadows  remind  one  of  the  well  known  portrait  of  her. 
On  another  plate  are  Grant  and  Lincoln,  *  Among  his 
other  photographs  Dr.  Hansmann  brought  out  one 
of  a  man  who  was  described  to  me  as  an  Indian  agent. 
Around  his  head  were  eleven  smaller  'spirit'  heads  of 
Indians.  In  looking  at  the  blue  print  closely  it 
seemed  to  me  as  if  I  had  seen  those  identical  heads — 
the  same  as  to  light,  shade  and  posing — somewhere 
before. 

"I  was  aided  at  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  by  Mr.  F.  Webb  Hodge,  the 
acting  director,  who  on  looking  at  the  blue  print 
named  the  Indians  directly;  several  of  the  pictures 
were  of  Indians  still  alive.  This,  of  course,  imme- 


II 


SPIRIT  PHOTOGRAPHY.  193 

diately  disposed  of  the  idea  of  the  blue  print  Indians 
being  spirits. 

"Moreover,  Mr.  Dinwiddie  produced  the  negatives 
containing  the  identical  portraits  of  these  Indians  and 
made  me  several  proofs,  which  on  a  comparison,  feat- 
ure by  feature,  light  for  light,  and  shade  for  shade, 
show  unquestionably  that  the  faces  on  the  blue  print 
are  copies  of  the  portraits  made  by  the  photographer 
of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology. 

"Mr.  Dinwiddie  asked  me  to  sit  down  for  awhile, 
and  offered  to  make  me  some  spirit  photographs. 
This  he  did,  and  the  results  obtained  may  be  consid- 
ered as  far  better  examples  of  the  art  of  'spirit'  pho- 
tography than  those  of  the  medium,  Keeler. 

"The  matter  was  very  simply  done.  Mr.  Dinwiddie 
asked  one  of  the  ladies  from  the  office  to  come  in,  and, 
she  consented  to  pose  as  a  spirit.  She  was  placed  be- 
fore the  camera  at  a  distance  of  about  six  feet,  a  red 
background  was  given  her,  so  .that  it  might  photo- 
graph dark,  and  she  was  asked  to  put  on  a  saintly  ex- 
pression. This  she  did,  and  Mr.  Dinwiddie  gave  the 
plate  a  half-second  exposure.  Another  head  was 
taken  on  the  other  side  of  the  plate  in  much  the  same 
manner.  After  this  was  done  the  other  or  central 


194  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

photograph  was  taken  with  an  exposure  of  four  sec- 
onds, the  plate  being  rather  sensitive. 

'The  plate  was  then  taken  to  the  dark  room  and 
developed.  The  negative  came  out  very  well  at  first, 
and  the  halo  was  put  on  afterward,  when  the  plate  had 
been  dried.  The  halo  was  made  by  rubbing  vignet- 
ting paste  on  the  back,  thus  shutting  out  the  light  and 
leaving  the  paper  its  original  hue.  The  white  shad- 
owy heads  which  are  frequently  shown  in  black  coats, 
and  which  the  mediums  claim  cannot  be  explained, 
are  also  done  in  this  manner  with  vignetting  paste,  the 
picture  being  afterward  centred  over  these  places, 
which  will  be  white,  the  final  result  showing  soft  and 
indefinite,  and  giving  the  required  spiritual  look. 

"Mr.  Dinwiddie  did  not  attempt  to  produce  the  hazy 
effect,  but  this  is  very  easily  accomplished  in  the  pho- 
tograph by  taking  the  spirit  heads  a  trifle  out  of  focus. 
He  claims  that  all  of  these  apparent  spiritual  manifes- 
tations are  but  tricks  of  photography,  and  ones  which 
might  be  accomplished  by  the  veriest  tyro,  if  he  were 
to  study  the  matter,  and  give  his  time  to  the  experi- 
ment. It  is  only  a  wonder  that  the  mediums  do  not 
do  more  of  it. 

"The  photograph  mediums  have  always  claimed 


FIG.  30— SPIRIT  PHOTOGRAPH  BY  PRETENDED    MEDIUM. 


SPIRIT  PHOTOGRAPHY.  197 

that  they  were  set  upon  by  photographers  for  busi- 
ness reasons,  but  Mr.  Dinwiddie  is  employed  by  the 
government  and  has  no  interests  whatever  in  such  a 
dispute." 

The  eminent  authority  on  photography,  Mr.  Walter 
E.  Woodbury,  gives  many  interesting  exposes  of  me- 
diumistic  photographs  in  his  work,  "Photographic 
Amusements,"  which  the  student  of  the  subject  would  do 
well  to  consult.  Fig.  30,  taken  from  "Photographic 
Amuseatents"  is  a  reproduction  of  a  "spirit"  photograph 
made  by  a  photographer  claiming  to  be  a  medium.  Says 
Mr.  Woodbury:  "Fortunately,  however,  we  were  in 
this  case  able  to  expose  the  fraud.  Mr.  W.  M.  Murray, 
a  prominent  member  of  the  Society  of  Amateur  Photo- 
graphers of  New  York,  called  our  attention  to  the  simi- 
larity between  one  of  the  'spirit'  images  and  a  portrait 
painting  by  Sichel,  the  artist.  A  reproduction  of  the 
picture  (Fig  31)  is  given  herewith,  and  it  will  be  seen 
at  once  that  the  'spirit'  image  is  copied  from  it." 

5.    Thought  Photography. 

During  the  year  1896  considerable  stir  was  created 
by  the  investigation  of  Dr.  Hippolyte  Baraduc,  of 
Paris,  in  the  line  of  "Thought  Photography,"  which 


198  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

is  of  interest  to  psychic  investigators  generally.  Dr. 
Baraduc  claimed  to  have  gotten  photographic  im- 
pressions of  his  thoughts,  "made  without  sunlight  or 
electricity  or  contact  of  any  material  kind."  These 
impressions  he  declared  to  be  subjective,  being  his 
own  personal  vibrations,  the  result  of  a  force  emanat- 
ing from  the  human  personality,  supra-mechanical,  or 
spiritual.  The  experiments  were  carried  on  in  a  dark 
room,  and  according  to  his  statement  were  highly  suc- 
cessful. In  a  communication  to  an  American  corre- 
spondent, printed  in  the  New  York  Herald,  Janu- 
ary 3,  1897,  he  writes:  "I  have  discovered  a  human, 
invisible  light,  differing  altogether  from  the  cathode 
rays  discovered  by  Prof.  Roentgen."  Dr.  Baraduc 
advanced  the  theory  that  our  souls  must  be  considered 
as  centers  of  luminous  forces,  owing  their  existence 
partly  to  the  attraction  and  partly  to  the  repulsion  of 
special  and  potent  forces  bred  of  the  invisible  cosmos." 
A  number  of  French  scientific  journals  took  up  the 
matter,  and  discussed  "Thought  Photography"  at 
length,  publishing  numerous  reproductions  of  the 
physician's  photographs;  but  the  more  conservative 
journals  of  England,  Germany  and  America  remained 
silent  on  the  subject,  as  it  seemed  to  be  on  the  border- 


FIG.  31— SIGEL'S   ORIGINAL  PICTURE  OF  FIG  30. 


THOUGHT  PHOTOGRAPHY.  201 

land  between-  science  and  charlatanry.  On  January 
11,  1897,  the  American  newspapers  contained  an  item 
to  the  effect  that  Drs.  S.  Millington  Miller  and  Carle- 
ton  Simon,  of  New  York  City,  the  former  a  specialist 
in  brain  physiology,  and  the  latter  an  expert  hypno- 
tist, had  succeeded  in  obtaining  successful  thought 
photographs  on  dry  plates  from  two  hypnotized  sub- 
jects. When  the  subjects  were  not  hypnotized,  the 
physicians  reported  no  results. 

As  'Thought  Photography"  is  without  the  pale  of 
known  physical  laws,  stronger  evidence  is  needed  to 
support  the  claims  made  for  it  than  that  which  has 
been  adduced  by  the  French  and  American  investiga- 
tors. "Thought  Photography"  once  established  as  a 
scientific  fact,  we  shall  have,  perhaps,  an  explanation 
of  genuine  spirit  photographs,  if  such  there  be. 

6*    Apparitions  of  the  Dead. 

In  my  chapter  on  subjective  phenomena,  I  have  not 
recorded  any  cases  of  phantasms  of  the  dead,  though 
several  interesting  examples  of  such  have  come  under 
my  notice.  I  have  thought  it  better  to  refer  the 
reader  to  the  voluminous  repoits  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  (England).  In  regard  to  these 


202  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

cases,  the  Society  has  reached  the  following  conclu- 
sion: Between  deaths  and  apparitions  of  dying  persons 
a  connection  exists  which  is  not  due  to  chance  alone. 
This  we  hold  as  a  proved  fact. 

The  "Literary  Digest"  January  12,  1895,  in  review- 
ing this  report,  says:  "Inquiries  were  instituted  in 
17,000  cases  of  alleged  apparitions.  These  inquiries 
elicited  1,249  replies  from  persons  [in  England  and 
Wales]  who  affirmed  that  they  themselves  had  seen  the 
apparitions.  Then  the  Society  by  further  inquiries 
and  cross-examinations  sifted  out  all  but  eighty  of 
these  as  discredited  in  some  way,  by  error  of  memory 
or  illusions  of  identity,  or  for  some  other  reason,  or 
which  could  be  accounted  for  by  common  psychical 
laws.  Of  these  eighty,  fifty  more  were  thrown  out,  to 
be  on  the  safe  side,  and  the  remaining  thirty  are  used 
as  a  basis  for  scientific  consideration.  All  these  con- 
sisted of  apparitions  of  dead  persons  appearing  to 
others  within  twelve  hours  after  death,  and  many  of 
them  appearing  at  the  very  hour  and  even  the  very 
minute  of  death.  The  full  account  of  the  investigation 
is  published  in  the  tenth  volume  of  the  Society's  Reports, 
under  the  title,  'A  Census  of  Hallucinations/  and  Prof. 
J.  H.  Hyslop,  of  Columbia  College,  wrote  an  article 


APPARITIONS  OF  THE  DEAD.  203 

giving  the  gist  of  the  report  and  his  comments  in  the 
'Independent'  (December  27,  1895),  from  which  I  cull 
these  few  notable  paragraphs: 

'  The  committee  which  conducted  the  research  rea- 
sons as  follows:  Since  the  death  rate  of  England  is 
19.15  out  of  every  thousand,  the  chances  of  any  per- 
son's dying  on  any  particular  day  are  one  in  19,000 
(the  ratio  of  19.15  to  365  times  1,000).  Out  of  19,000 
death  apparitions,  therefore,  one  can  be  explained  as 
a  simple  coincidence.  But  thirty  apparitions  out  of 
1,300  cases  is  in  the  proportion  of  440  out  of  19,000,  so 
that  to  refer  these  thirty  well-authenticated  appari- 
tions to  coincidence  is  deemed  impossible.' 

"And  further  on: 

"  'This  is  remarkable  language  for  the  signatures  oi 
Prof,  and  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  than  whom  few  harder- 
headed  skeptics  could  be  found.  It  is  more  than 
borne  out,  however,  by  a  consideration  which  the  com- 
mittee does  not  mention,  but  which  the  facts  entirely 
justify,  and  it  is  that  since  many  of  the  apparitions  oc- 
curred not  merely  on  the  day,  but  at  the  very  hour 
or  minute  of  death,  the  improbability  of  their  explana- 
tion by  chance  is  really  much  greater  than  the  figures 
here  given.  That  the  apparition  should  occur  within 


204  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

the  hour  of  death  the  chance  should  be  1  to  356,000, 
or  at  the  minute  of  death  1  to  21,360,000.  To  get  30 
cases,  therefore,  brought  down  to  these  limits  we 
should  have  to  collect  thirty  times  these  numbers  of 
apparitions.  Either  these  statistics  are  of  no  value  in 
a  study  of  this  kind,  or  the  Society's  claim  is  made  out 
that  there  is  either  a  telepathic  communication  be- 
tween the  dying  and  those  who  see  their  apparitions, 
or  some  causal  connection  not  yet  defined  or  deter- 
mined by  science.  That  this  connection  may  be  due 
to  favorable  conditions  in  the  subject  of  the  hallucina- 
tion is  admitted  by  the  committee,  if  the  person  hav- 
ing the  apparition  is  suffering  from  grief  or  anxiety 
about  the  person  concerned.  But  it  has  two  replies 
to  such  a  criticism.  The  first  is  the  query  how  and 
why  under  the  circumstances  does  this  effect  coincide 
generally  with  the  death  of  the  person  concerned, 
when  anxiety  is  extended  over  a  considerable  period. 
The  second  is  a  still  more  triumphant  reply,  and  it  is 
that  a  large  number  of  the  cases  show  that  the  subject 
of  the  apparition  has  no  knowledge  of  the  dying  per- 
son's sickness,  place,  or  condition.  In  that  case  there 
is  no  alternative  to  searching  elsewhere  for  the  cause. 
If  telepathy  or  thought  transference  will  not  explain 


APPARITIONS  OF  THE  DEAD.  205 

the  connection,  resort  must  be  had  to  some  most  ex- 
traordinary hypothesis.  Most  persons  will  probably 
accept  telepathy  as  the  easiest  way  out  of  the  diffi- 
culty, though  I  am  not  sure  that  we  are  limited  to 
this,  the  easiest  explanation.' 

"Professor  Hyslop  then  proceeds  to  consider  the  ef- 
fect of  the  committee's  conclusion  upon  existing  the- 
ories and  speculations  regarding  the  relations  between 
mind  and  matter,  and  foresees  with  gratification  as 
well  as  apprehension  the  revolt  likely  to  be  initiated 
against  materialism  and  which  may  go  so  far  as  to 
discredit  science  and  carry  us  far  back  to  the  credulous 
conditions  of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  says: 

"  'The  point  which  the  investigations  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  have  already  reached  creates 
a  question  of  transcendent  interest,  no  matter  what  the 
solution  of  it  may  be,  and  will  stimulate  in  the  near 
future  an  amount  of  psychological  and  theological 
speculation  of  the  most  hasty  and  crude  sort,  which  it 
will  require  the  profoundest  knowledge  of%  mental 
phenomena,  normal  and  abnormal,  and  the  best  meth- 
ods of  science  to  counteract,  and  to  keep  within  the 
limits  of  sober  reason.  The  hardly  won  conquests  of 
intellectual  freedom  and  self-control  can  easily  be 


206  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

overthrown  by  a  reaction  that  will  know  no  bounds 
and  which  it  will  be  impossible  to  regulate.  Though 
there  may  be  some  moral  gain  from  the  change  of  be- 
liefs, as  will  no  doubt  be  the  case  in  the  long  run,  we 
have  too  recently  escaped  the  intellectual,  religious, 
and  political  tyranny  of  the  Middle  Ages  to  contem- 
plate the  immediate  consequences  of  the  reaction  with 
any  complacency.  But  no  one  can  calculate  the  enor- 
mous effect  upon  intellectual,  social,  and  political  con- 
ditions which  would  ensure  upon  the  reconciliation  of 
science  and  religion  by  the  proof  of  immortality." 


IV.      CONCLUSIONS. 

In  my  investigations  of  the  physical  phenomena  of 
modern  spiritualism,  I  have  come  to  the  following 
conclusion:  While  the  majority  of  mediumistic  man- 
ifestations are  due  to  conjuring,  there  is  a  class  of 
cases  not  ascribable  to  trickery,  namely,  those  coming 
within  the  domain  of  psychic  force — as  exemplified  by 
the  experiments  of  Gasparin,  Crookes,  Lodge,  Asakoff 
and  Coues.  In  regard  to  the  subjective  phenomena, 
I  am  convinced  that  the  recently  annunciated  law  of 
telepathy  will  account  for  them.  /  discredit  the  theory 
of  spirit  intervention.  If  this  be  a  correct  conclusion, 
is  there  anything  in  mediumistic  phenomena  that  will 
contribute  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul?  I  think  there  is.  The  existence 
of  a  subjective  or  subliminal  consciousness  in  man,  as 
illustrated  in  the  phenomena  mentioned,  seems  to  indi- 
cate that  the  human  personality  is  really  a  spiritual 
entity,  possessed  of  unknown  resources,  and  capable 
of  preserving  its  identity  despite  the  shock  of  time  and 
the  grave.  Hudson  says:  "It  is  clear  that  the  power 

207 


2o8  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

of  telepathy  has  nothing  in  common  with  objective 
methods  of  communications  between  mind  and  mind; 
and  that  it  is  not  the  product  of  muscle  or  nerve  or  any 
physiological  combination  whatever,  but  rather  sets 
these  at  naught,  with  their  implications  of  space  and 
time.  .  .  .  When  disease  seizes  the  physical  frame 
and  the  body  grows  feeble,  the  objective  mind  invar- 
iably grows  correspondingly  weak.  ...  In  the 
meantime,  as  the  objective  mind  ceases  to  perform  its 
functions,  the  subjective  mind  is  most  active  and  pow- 
erful. The  individual  may  never  before  have  exhib- 
ited any  psychic  power,  and  may  never  have  con- 
sciously produced  any  psychic  phenomena;  yet  at  the 
supreme  moment  his  soul  is  in  active  communication 
with  loved  ones  at  a  distance,  and  the  death  message 
is  often,  when  psychic  conditions  are  favorable,  con- 
sciously received.  The  records  of  telepathy  demon- 
trate  this  proposition.  Nay,  more;  they  may  be  cited 
to  show  that  in  the  hour  of  death  the  soul  is  capable  of 
projecting  a  phantasm  of  such  strength  and  objec- 
tivity that  it  may  be  an  object  of  personal  experience 
to  those  for  whom  it  is  intended.  Moreover,  it  has 
happened  that  telepathic  messages  have  been  sent  by 
the  dying,  at  the  moment  of  dissolution,  giving  all  the 


CONCLUSIONS.  209 

particulars  of  the  tragedy,  when  the  death  was  caused 
by  an  unexpected  blow  which  crushed  the  skull  of  the 
victim.  It  is  obvious  that  in  such  cases  it  is  impos- 
sible that  the  objective  mind  could  have  participated 
in  the  transaction.  The  evidence  is  indeed  over- 
whelming, that,  no  matter  what  form  death  may  as- 
sume, whether  caused  by  lingering  disease,  old  age,  or 
violence,  the  subjective  mind  is  never  weakened  by 
its  approach  or  its  presence.  On  the  other  hand,  that 
the  objective  mind  weakens  with  the  body  and  per- 
ishes with  the  brain,  is  a  fact  confirmed  by  every-day 
observation  and  universal  experience." 

This  hypothesis  of  the  objective  and  subjective 
minds  has  been  criticised  by  many  psychologists  on 
the  ground  of  its  extreme  dualism.  No  such  dual- 
ism exists,  they  contend.  However,  Hudson's  the- 
ory is  only  a  working  hypothesis  at  best,  to>  explain 
certain  extraordinary  facts  in  human  experience. 
Future  investigators  may  be  able  to  throw  more  light 
on  the  subject.  But  this  one  thing  may  be  enun- 
ciated: Telepathy  is  an  incontrovertible  fact,  account 
for  it  as  you  may,  a  physical  force  or  a  spiritual  en- 
ergy. If  physical,  then  it  does  not  follow  any  of  the 
known  operations  of  physical  laws  as  established  by 


210  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

modern  science,  especially  in  the  case  of  transmission 
of  thought  at  a  distance. 

It  is  true,  that  all  evidence  in  support  of  telepathic 
communications  is  more  or  less  ex  parte  in  character, 
and  does  not  possess  that  validity  which  orthodox 
science  requires  of  investigators.  Any  student  of  the 
physical  laws  of  matter  can  make  investigations  for 
himself,  and  at  any  time,  provided  he  has  the  proper 
apparatus.  Explain  to  a  person  that  water  is  com- 
posed of  two  gases,  oxygen  and  hydrogen,  and  he  can 
easily  verify  the  fact  for  himself  by  combining  the 
gases,  in  the  combination  of  H2O,  and  afterwards  lib- 
erate them  by  a  current  of  electricity.  But  experi- 
ments in  telepathy  and  clairvoyance  cannot  be  made  at 
will;  they  are  isolated  in  character,  and  consequently 
are  regarded  with  suspicion  by  orthodox  science. 
Besides  this,  they  transcend  the  materialistic  theories 
of  science  as  regards  the  universe,  and  one  is  almost 
compelled  to  use  the  old  metaphysical  terms  of  mind 
and  matter,  body  and  soul,  in  describing  the  phe- 
nomena. 

It  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  science  has  broken  away 
from  the  old  theory  regarding  the  distinction  between 
mind  and  matter.  Says  Prof.  Wm.  Romaine  Newbold, 


CONCLUSIONS.  211 

"In  the  scientific  world  it  has  fallen  into  such  disfavor 
that  in  many  circles  it  is  almost  as  disgraceful  to  avow 
belief  in  it  as  in  witchcraft  or  ghosts."  We  have  today  a 
school  of  "physiological-psychology,"  calling  itself 
"psychology  without  a  soul."  This  school  is  devoted 
to  the  laboratory  method  of  studying  mind.  "The 
laboratory  method,"  says  Roark,  in  his  "Psychology 
in  Education,"  "is  concerned  mostly  with  physiological 
psychology,  which  is,  after  all,  only  physiology,  even 
though  it  be  the  physiology  of  the  nervous  system  and 
the  special  organs  of  sense — the  material  tools  of  the 
mind.  And  after  physiological  psychology  has  had 
its  rather  prolix  say,  causal  connection  of  the  physical 
organs  with  psychic  action  is  as  obscure  and  impos- 
sible of  explanation  as  ever.  But  the  laboratory 
method  can  be  of  excellent  service  in  determining  the 
material  conditions  of  mental  action,  in  detecting  spe- 
cial deficiencies  and  weaknesses,  and  in  accumulating 
valuable  statistics  along  these  lines. 

"It  has  been  asserted  that  no  science  can  claim  to  be 
exact  until  it  can  be  reduced  to  formulas  of  weights 
and  measures.  The  assertion  begs  the  question  for 
the  materialists.  We  shall  probably  never  be  able  to 
weigh  an  idea  or  measure  the  cubic  contents  of  the 


212  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA. 

memory ;  but  the  rapidity  with  which  ideas  are  formed 
or  reproduced  by  memory  has  been  measured  in  many 
particular  instances,  and  the  circumstances  that  retard 
or  accelerate  their  formation  or  reproduction  have 
been  positively  ascertained  and  classified." 

That  it  is  possible  to  explain  all  mental  phenomena 
in  terms  of  physics  is  by  no  means  the  unanimous  ver- 
dict of  scientific  men.  A  small  group  of  students  of 
late  years  have  detached  themselves  from  the  purely 
materialistic  school  and  broken  ground  in  the  region 
of  the  supernormal  Says  Professor  Newbold  (Pop- 
ular Science  Monthly,  January,  1897):  "In  the  su- 
pernormal field,  the  facts  already  reported,  should  they 
be  substantiated  by  further  inquiry,  would  go  far  to- 
wards showing  that  consciousness  is  an  entity  governed 
by  laws  and  possessed  of  powers  incapable  of  expres- 
sion in  material  conceptions. 

"I  do  not  myself  regard  the  theory  of  independence 
[of  mind  and  body]  as  proved,  but  I  think  we  have 
enough  evidence  for  it  to  destroy  in  any  candid  mind 
that  considers  it  that  absolute  credulity  as  to  its  possi- 
bility which  at  present  characterizes  the  average  man 
of  science." 


PART  SECOND. 

MADAME  BLAVATSKY  AND  THE  THEO- 
SOPHISTS, 


1.    The  Priestess* 

The  greatest  "fantaisiste"  of  modern  tinus  was  Ma- 
dame Blavatsky,  spirit  medium,  Priestess  of  Isis,  and 
founder  of  the  Theosophical  Society.  Her  life  is  one 
long  catalogue  of  wonders.  In  appearance  she  was 
enormously  fat,  had  a  harsh,  disagreeable  voice,  and 
a  violent  temper,  dressed  in  a  slovenly  manner,  usually 
in  loose  wrappers,  smoked  cigarettes  incessantly,  and 
cared  little  or  nothing  for  the  conventionalities  of  life. 
But  in  spite  of  all — unprepossessing  appearance  and 
gross  habits — she  exercised  a  powerful  personal  mag- 
netism over  those  who  came  in  contact  with  her.  She 
was  the  Sphinx  of  the  second  half  of  this  Century;  a 
Pythoness  in  tinsel  robes  who  strutted  across  the 
world's  stage  "full  of  sound  and  fury/'  and  disappeared 

from  view  behind  the  dark  veil  of  Isis,  which  she, 

213 


214  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

the  fin-de-siecle  prophetess,  tried  to  draw  aside  during 
her  earthly  career. 

In  searching  for  facts  concerning  the  life  of  this 
really  remarkable  woman — remarkable  for  the  influ- 
ence she  has  exerted  upon  the  thought  of  this  latter 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century — I  have  read  all  that  has 
been  written  about  her  by  prominent  Theosophists, 
have  talked  with  many  who  knew  her  intimately,  and 
now  endeavor  to  present  the  truth  concerning  her 
and  her  career.  The  leading  work  on  the  subject  is 
"Incidents  in  the  Life  of  Madame  Blavatsky/'  com- 
piled from  information  supplied  by  her  relatives  and 
friends,  and  edited  by  A.  P.  Sinnett,  author  of  "The 
Occult  World."  The  frontispiece  to  the  book  is  a  re- 
production of  a  portrait  of  Madame  Blavatsky,  painted 
by  H.  Schmiechen,  and  represents  the  lady  seated  on 
the  steps  of  an  ancient  ruin,  holding  a  parchment  in 
her  hand.  She  is  garbed  somewhat  after  the  fashion 
of  a  Cumaean  Sibyl  and  gazes  straight  before  her  with 
the  deep  unfathomable  eyes  of  a  mystic,  as  if  she  were 
reading  the  profound  riddles  of  the  ages,  and  behold- 
ing the  sands  of  Time  falling  hot  and  swift  into  the 
glass  of  eternity — 

"And  all  things  creeping  to  a  day  of  doom." 


FIG.  32— MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 


THE  1 RIESTESS.  217 

Sinnett's  life  of  the  High  Priestess  is  a  strange  con- 
coction of  monstrous  absurdities ;  it  is  full  of  the  weird- 
est happenings  that  were  ever  vouchsafed  to  mortal. 
We  cannot  put  much  faith  in  this  biography,  and  must 
delve  in  other  mines  for  information;  but  some  of  the 
remarkable  passages  of  the  book  are  worth  perusing, 
particularly  if  the  reader  be  prone  to  midnight  mus- 
ings of  a  ghostly  character. 

Helena  Petrovna  Blavatsky,  the  daughter  of  Col. 
Peter  Hahn  of  the  Russian  Army,  and  granddaughter 
of  General  Alexis  Hahn  von  Rottenstern  Hahn  (a 
noble  family  of  Mecklenburg,  Germany,  settled 
in  Russia),  was  born  in  Eskaterinoslaw,  in  the 
south  of  Russia,  in  1831.  "She  had,"  says  Sinnett, 
"a  strange  childhood,  replete  with  abnormal  oc- 
currences. The  year  of  her  birth  was  fatal 
for  Russia,  as  for  all  Europe,  owing  to  the  first  visit 
of  the  cholera,  that  terrible  plague  that  decimated 
from  1830  to  1832  in  turn  nearly  every  town  of  the 

Continent Her  birth  was  quickened  by 

several  deaths  in  the  house,  and  she  was  ushered  into 
the  world  amid  coffins  and  desolation,  on  the  night  be- 
tween July  30th  and  31st,  weak  and  apparently  no  den- 
izen of  this  world."  A  hurried  baptism  was  given  lest 


2l8  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

the  child  die  in  original  sin,  and  the  ceremony  was  that 
of  the  Greek  Church.  During  the  orthodox  baptismal 
rite  no  person  is  allowed  to  sit,  but  a  child  aunt  of  the 
baby,  tired  of  standing  for  nearly  an  hour,  settled 
down  upon  the  floor,  just  behind  the  officiating  priest. 
No  one  perceived  her,  as  she  sat  nodding  drowsily. 
The  ceremony  was  nearing  its  close.  The  sponsors 
were  just  in  the  act  of  renouncing  the  Evil  One  and 
his  deeds,  a  renunciation  emphasized  in  the  Greek 
Church  by  thrice  spitting  upon  the  invisible  enemy, 
when  the  little  lady,  toying  with  her  lighted  taper  at 
the  feet  of  the  crowd,  inadvertantly  set  fire  to  the  long 
flowing  robes  of  the  priest,  no  one  remarking  the  ac- 
cident till  it  was  too  late.  The  result  was  an  imme- 
diate conflagration,  during  which  several  persons — 
chiefly  the  old  priest — were  sever  ly  '  urnt.  That  was 
another  bad  omen,  according  to  the  superstitious  be- 
liefs of  orthodox  Russia;  and  the  innocent  cause  of  it, 
the  future  Madame  Blavatsky,  was  doomed  from  that 
day,  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  town,  to  an  eve  itful,  troubled 
life. 

"Mile.  Hahn  was  born,  of  course,  with  all  the  char- 
acteristics of  what  is  known  in  Spiritualism  as  medium- 
ship  in  the  most  extraordinary  degree,  also  with  gifts 


THE  PRIESTESS.  219 

as  a  clairvoyant  of  an  almost  equally  unexampled  or- 
der. On  various  occasions  while  apparently  in  an 
ordinary  sleep,  she  would  answer  questions,  put  by 
persons  who  took  hold  of  her  hand,  about  lost 
property,  etc.,  as  though  she  were  a  sibyl  entranced. 
For  years  she  would,  in  childish  impulse,  shock 
strangers  with  whom  she  came  in  contact,  and  visitors 
to  the  house,  by  looking  them  intently  in  the  face  and 
telling  them  they  would  die  at  such  and  such  a  time, 
or  she  would  prophesy  to  them  some  accident  or  mis- 
fortune that  would  befall  them.  And  since  her  prog- 
nostications usually  came  true,  she  was  the  terror,  in 
this  respect,  of  the  domestic  circle." 

Madame  V.  P.  Jelihowsy,  a  sister  of  the  seeress,  has 
furnished  to  the  world  many  extraordinary  stories  of 
Mme.  Blavatsky's  childhood,  published  in  various 
Russian  periodicals.  At  the  age  of  eleven  the  Sibyl 
lost  her  mother,  and  went  to  live  with  her  grandpa- 
rents at  Saratow,  her  grandfather  being  civil  governor 
of  the  place.  The  family  mansion  was  a  lumbering 
old  country  place  "full  of  subterraneous  galleries,  long 
abandoned  passages,  turrets,  and  most  weird  nooks  and 
corners.  It  looked  more  like  a  mediaeval  ruined  castle 
than  a  building  of  the  last  century."  The  ghosts  of 


22O  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

martyred  serfs  were  supposed  to  haunt  the  uncanny 
building,  and  strange  legends  were  told  by  the  old 
family  servants  of  weir-wolves  and  goblins  that 
prowled  about  the  dark  forests  of  the  estate.  Here,  in 
this  House  of  Usher,  the  Sibyl  lived  and  dreamed,  and 
at  this  period  exhibited  many  abnormal  psychic  pe- 
culiarities, ascribed  by  her  orthodox  governess  and 
nurses  of  the  Greek  Church  to  possession  by  the  devil. 
She  had  at  times  ungovernable  fits  of  temper;  she 
would  ride  any  Cossack  horse  on  the  place  astride  a 
man's  saddle ;  go  into  trances  and  scare  everyone  from 
the  master  of  the  mansion  down  to  the  humblest 
vodka  drinker  on  the  estate. 

In  1848,  at  the  age  of  17,  she  married  General 
Count  Blavatsky,  a  gouty  old  Russian  of  70,  whom 
she  called  "the  plumed  raven,"  but  left  him  after 
a  brief  period  of  marital  infelicity.  From  this 
time  dates  her  career  as  a  thaumaturgist.  She 
travelled  through  India  and  made  an  honest  attempt 
to  penetrate  into  the  mysterious  confines  of  Thibet, 
but  succeeded  in  getting  only  a  few  miles  from  the 
frontier,  owing  to  the  fanaticism  of  the  natives. 

In  India,  as  elsewhere,  she  was  accused  of  being  a 
Russian  spy  and  was  generally  regarded  with  suspi- 


PIG.  33— MAHATMA  LETTER. 


THE  PRIESTESS.  223 

cion  by  the  police  authorities.  After  some  months  of 
erratic  wanderings  she  reappeared  in  Russia,  this  time 

in  Tiflis,  at  the  residence  of  a  relative,  Prince  . 

It  was  a  gloomy,  grewsome  chateau,  well  suited  for 
Spiritualistic  stances,  and  Madame  Blavatsky,  it  is 
claimed,  frightened  the  guests  during  the  long  winter 
evenings  with  table-tippings,  spirit  rappings,  etc.  It 
was  then  the  tall  candles  in  the  drawing-room  burnt 
low,  the  gobelin  tapestry  rustled,  sighs  were  heard, 
strange  music  "resounded  in  the  air,"  and  luminous 
forms  were  seen  trailing  their  ghostly  garments  across 
the  "tufted  flooi." 

The  gossipy  Madame  de  Jelihowsy,  in  her  reminis- 
cences, classifies  the  phenomena,  witnessed  in  the  pres- 
ence of  her  Sibylline  sister,  as  follows : 

1.  Direct  and  perfectly  clearly  written  and  verbal 
answers  to  mental  questions — or  "thought  reading." 

2.  Private  secrets,  unknown  to  all  but  the  inter- 
ested party,  divulged,  [especially  in  the  case  of  those 
persons  who  mentioned  insulting  doubts]. 

3.  Change  of  weight  in  furniture  and  persons  at  will. 

4.  Letters  from  unknown  correspondents,  and  im- 
mediate answers  written  to  queries  made,  and  found 
in  the  most  out-of-the-way  mysterious  places. 


224  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

5.  Appearance    of   objects    unclaimed   by    anyone 
present. 

6.  Sounds  of  musical  notes  in  the  air  wherever 
Madame  Blavatsky  desired  they  should  resound. 

In  the  year  1858,  the  High  Priestess  was  at  the 
house  of  General  Yakontoff  at  Pskoff,  Russia.  One 
night  when  the  drawing-room  was  full  of  visitors,  she 
began  to  describe  the  mediumistic  feat  of  making 
light  objects  heavy  and  heavy  objects  light. 

"Can  you  perform  such  a  miracle?"  ironically  asked 
her  brother,  Leonide  de  Hahn,  who  always  doubted 
his  sister's  occult  powers. 

"I  can,"  was  the  firm  reply. 

De  Hahn  went  to  a  small  chess  table,  lifted  it  as 
though  it  were  a  feather,  and  said:  "Suppose  you 
try  your  powers  on  this." 

"With  pleasure!"  replied  Mme.  Blavatsky.  "Place 
the  table  on  the  floor,  and  step  aside  for  a  minute." 
He  complied  with  her  request. 

She  fixed  her  large  blue  eyes  intently  upon  the  chess 
table  and  said  without  removing  her  gaze,  "Lift  it 
now." 

The  young  man  exerted  all  his  strength,  but  the 


THE  PRIESTESS.  227 

table  would  not  budge  an  inch.  Another  guest  tried 
with  the  same  result,  but  the  wood  only  cracked,  yield- 
ing to  no  effort. 

"Now,  lift  it,"  said  Madame  Blavatsky  calmly, 
whereupon  De  Hahn  picked  it  up  with  the  greatest 
ease.  Loud  applause  greeted  this  extraordinary  feat, 
and  the  skeptical  brother,  so  say  the  occultists,  was  ut- 
terly nonplussed. 

Madame  Blavatsky,  as  recorded  by  Sinnett,  stated 
afterwards  that  the  above  phenomenon  could  be  pro- 
duced in  two  different  ways :  "First,  through  the  exer- 
cise of  her  own  will  directing  the  magnetic  currents  so 
that  the  pressure  on  the  table  became  such  that  no 
physical  force  could  move  it;  second,  through  the 
action  of  those  beings  with  whom  she  was  in  constant 
communication,  and  who,  although  unseen,  were  able 
to  hold  the  table  against  all  opposition." 

The  writer  has  seen  similar  feats  performed  by  hyp- 
notizers  with  good  subjects  without  the  intervention  of 
any  ghostly  intelligences. 

In  1870  the  Priestess  of  Isis  journeyed  through 
Egypt  in  company  with  a  certain  Countess  K — ,  and 
endeavored  to  form  a  Spiritualistic  society  at  Cairo,  for 
the  investigation  of  psychic  phenomena,  but  things 


228  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

growing  unpleasant  for  her  she  left  the  land  of  pyra- 
mids and  papyri  in  hot  haste.  It  is  related  of  her  that 
during  this  Egyptian  sojourn  she  spent  one  night 
in  the  King's  sepulchre  in  the  bowels  of  the  Great  Py- 
ramid of  Cheops,  sleeping  in  the  very  sarcophagus 
where  once  reposed  the  mummy  of  a  Pharoah. 
Weird  sights  were  seen  by  the  entranced  occultist  and 
strange  sounds  were  heard  on  that  eventful  occasion 
within  the  shadowy  mortuary  chamber  of  the  pyra- 
mid. At  times  she  would  let  fall  mysterious  hints  of 
what  she  saw  that  night,  but  they  were  as  incompre- 
hensible as  the  riddles  of  the  fabled  Sphinx. 

Countess  Paschkoff  chronicles  a  curious  story  about 
the  Priestess  of  Isis,  which  reminds  one  somewhat  of 
the  last  chapter  in  Bulwer's  occult  novel,  "A  Strange 
Story."  The  Countess  relates  that  she  was  once  trav- 
elling between  Baalbec  and  the  river  Orontes,  and  in 
the  desert  came  across  the  caravan  belonging  to 
Madame  Blavatsky.  They  joined  company  and  to- 
wards nightfall  pitched  camp  near  the  village  of  El  Mar- 
sum  amid  some  ancient  ruins.  Among  the  relics  of  a 
Pagan  civilization  stood  a  great  monument  covered 
with  outlandish  hieroglyphics.  The  Countess  was 
curious  to  decipher  the  inscriptions,  and  begged  Ma- 


THE  PRIESTESS.  229 

dame  Blavatsky  to  unravel  their  meaning,  but  the 
Priestess  of  Isis,  notwithstanding  her  great  archaeo- 
logical knowledge,  was  unable  to  do  so.     However, 
she  said:    "Wait  until  night,  and  we  shall  see !"  When 
the  ruins  were  wrapped  in  sombre  shadow,   Mme. 
Blavatsky  drew  a  great  circle  upon  the  ground  about 
the  monument,  and  invited  the  Countess  to  stand 
within  the  mystic  confines.     A  fire  was  built  and  upon 
it  were  thrown  various  aromatic  herbs  and  incense. 
Cabalistic  spells  were  recited  by  the  sorceress,  as  the 
smoke  from  the  incense  ascended,  and  then  she  thrice 
commanded  the  spirit  to  whom  the  monument  was 
erected  to  appear.     Soon  the  cloud  of  smoke  from  the 
burning  incense  assumed  the  shape  of  an  old  man 
with  a  long  white  beard.     A  voice  from  a  distance 
pierced  the  misty  image,  and  spoke:     "I  am  Hiero, 
one  of  the  priests  of  a  great  temple  erected  to  the  gods, 
that  stood  upon  this  spot.    This  monument  was  the 
altar.     Behold!"    No   sooner  were  the   words   pro- 
nounced than  a  phantasmagoric  vision  of  a  gigantic 
temple  appeared,  supported  by  ponderous  columns, 
and  a  great  city  was  seen  covering  the  distant  plain, 
but  all  soon  faded  into  thin  air. 
This  story  was  related  to  a  select  coterie  of  occult- 


230  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

ists  assembled  in  social  conclave  at  the  headquarters 
in  New  York.  The  question  is,  had  the  charming 
Russian  Countess  dreamed  this,  or  was  she  trying  to 
exploit  herself  as  a  traveler  who  had  come  "out  of  the 
mysteiious  East"  and  had  seen  strange  things? 

We  next  hear  of  the  famous  occultist  in  the  United 
States,  where  she  associated  chiefly  with  spirit-me- 
diums, enchanters,  professional  clairvoyants,  and  the 
like. 

"At  this  period  of  her  career  she  had  not,"*  says 
Dr.  Eliott  Coues,  a  learned  investigator  of  psychic 
phenomena,  "been  metamorphosed  into  a  Theosophist. 
She  was  simply  exploiting  as  a  Spiritualistic  medium. 
Her  most  familiar  spook  was  a  ghostly  fiction  named 
'John  King/  This  fellow  is  supposed  to  have  been 
a  pirate,  condemned  for  his  atrocities  to  serve  earth- 
bound  for  a  term  of  years,  and  to  present  himself  at 
materializing  stances  on  call.  Any  medium  who  per- 
sonates this  ghost  puts  on  a  heavy  black  horse-hair 
beard  and  a  white  bed  sheet  and  talks  in  sepulchral 
chest  tones.  John  is  as  standard  and  sure-enough 
a  ghost  as  ever  appeared  before  the  public.  Most  of 
the  leading  mediums,  both  in  Europe  and  America, 

*  Communication  to  New  York  Sun,  1892. 


THE  PRIESTESS.  231 

keep  him  in  stock.  I  have  often  seen  the  old  fellow 
in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Washington  through 
more  mediums  that  I  can  remember  the  names  of. 
Our  late  Minister  to  Portugul,  Mr.  J.  O'Sullivan,  has 
a  photograph  of  him  at  full  length,  floating  in  space, 
holding  up  a  peculiar  globe  of  light  shaped  like  a  glass 
decanter.  This  trustworthy  likeness  was  taken  in  Eu- 
rope, and  I  think  in  Russia,  but  am  not  sure  on  that 
point.  I  once  had  the  pleasure  of  introducing  the 
pirate  king  to  my  friend  Prof.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace, 
in  the  person  of  Pierre  L.  O.  A.  Keeler,  a  noted  me- 
dium of  Washington. 

"But  the  connection  between  the  pirate  and  my  story 
is  this :  Madame  Blavatsky  was  exploiting  King  at  the 
time  of  which  I  speak,and  several  of  her  letteis  to  friends, 
which  I  have  read,  are  curiously  scribbled  in  red  and 
blue  pencil  with  sentences  and  signatures  of  ']ohn 
King/  just  as,  later  on,  'Koot  Hoomi'  used  to  miracu- 
lously precipitate  himself  upon  her  stationery  in  all 
sorts  of  colored  crayons.  And,  by  the  way,  I  may 
call  the  reader's  attention  to  the  fact  that  while  the  in- 
genious creature  was  operating  in  Cairo,  her  Mahat- 
mas  were  of  the  Egyptian  order  of  architecture,  and 
located  in  the  ruins  of  Thebes  or  Karnak.  They  were 


232  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

not  put  in  turbans  and  shifted  to  Thibet  till  late  in 
1879." 

In  1875,  while  residing  in  New  York,  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  a  Theosophi- 
cal  Society.  Stupendous  thought!  Cagliostro  in  the 
eighteenth  century  founded  his  Egyptian  Free- 
Masonry  for  the  re-generation  of  mankind,  and  Bla- 
vatsky  in  the  nineteenth  century  laid  the  corner  stone 
of  modern  Theosophy  for  a  similar  purpose.  Caglios- 
tro had  his  High  Priestess  in  the  person  of  a  beautiful 
wife,  Lorenza  Feliciani,  and  Blavatsky  her  Hiero- 
phant  in  the  somewhat  prosaic  guise  of  a  New  York 
reporter,  Col.  Olcott,  since  then  a  famous  personage 
in  occult  circles. 

During  the  Civil  War,  Olcott  served  in  the  Quar- 
termaster's Department  of  the  Army  and  afterwards 
held  a  position  in  the  Internal  Revenue  Service  of  the 
United  States.  In  18 —  he  was  a  newspaper  man  in 
New  York,  and  was  sent  by  the  Graphic  to  investi- 
gate the  alleged  Spiritualistic  phenomena  transpiring 
in  the  Eddy  family  in  Chittenden,  Vermont.  There  he 
met  Madame  Blavatsky.  It  was  his  fate. 

Col.  Olcott's  description  of  his  first  sight  of  Mme. 
Blavatsky  is  interesting: 


THE  1  RIESTESS.  233 

"The  dinner  at  Eddy's  was  at  noon,  and  it  was  from 
the  entrance  door,  of  the  bare  and  comfortless  dining- 
room  that  Kappes  and  I  first  saw  H.  P.  B.  She  had 
arrived  shortly  before  jioon  with  a  French  Canadian 


FIG.  35.     COL.H.  8.  OLCOTT. 

lady,  and  they  were  at  table  as  we  entered.  My  eye 
was  first  attracted  by  a  scarlet  Garibaldian  shirt  the 
former  wore,  as  being  in  vivid  contrast  with  the  dull 
colors  around.  Her  hair  was  then  a  thick  blonde 
mop,  worn  shorter  than  the  shoulders,  and  it  stood 
out  from  her  head,  silken,  soft,  and  crinkled  to  the 
roots,  like  the  fleece  of  a  Cotswold  ewe.  This  and  the 


*34  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

red  shirt  were  what  struck  my  attention  before  I  took 
in  the  picture  of  her  features.  It  was  a  massive  Kal- 
muck face,  contrasting  in  its  suggestion  of  power,  cul- 
ture, and  imperiousness,  as  strangely  with  the  com- 
monplace visages  about  the  room,  as  her  red  garment 
did  with  the  gray  and  white  tones  of  the  wall  and 
woodwork,  and  the  dull  costumes  of  the  rest  of  the 
guests.  All  sorts  of  cranky  people  were  continually 
coming  and  going  at  Eddy's,  to  see  the  mediumistic 
phenomena,  and  it  only  struck  me  on  seeing  this  ec- 
centric lady  that  this  was  but  one  more  of  the  sort. 
Pausing  on  the  door-sill,  I  whispered  to  Kappes, 
'Good  gracious!  look  at  that  specimen,  will  you!'  I 
went  straight  across  and  took  a  seat  opposite  her  to 
indulge  my  favorite  habit  of  character-study." 

Commenting  on  this  meeting,  J.  Ransom  Bridges, 
in  the  Arena,  for  April,  1895,  remarks:  "After  din- 
ner Colonel  Olcott  scraped  an  acquaintance  by  op- 
portunely offering  her  a  light  for  a  cigarette  which  she 
proceeded  to  roll  for  herself.  This  'light'  must  have 
been  charged  with  Theosophical  karma,  for  the  burn- 
ing match  or  end  of  a  lighted  cigar — the  Colonel  does 
not  specify — lit  a  train  of  causes  and  their  effects 
which  now  are  making  history  and  are  world-wide  in 


THE  PRIESTESS. 


FIO.  36.     OATH  OF   SECRECY  TAKEN  BY  CHARTER  MEMBERS  OF  THE  THEO- 
SOPHICAL  SOCIETY. 

[Kindness  of  the  New  York  Herald.} 


236  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

their  importance.  So  confirmed  a  pessimist  on  Theo 
sophical  questions  as  Henry  Sidgwick  of  the  London 
Society  for  Psychical  Research,  says,  'Even  if  it  [the 
Theosophical  Society]  were  to  expire  next  year,  its 
twenty  years'  existence  would  be  a  phenomenon  of 
some  interest  for  a  historian  of  European  society  in  the 
nineteenth  century/  " 

The  seances  at  the  Eddy  house  must  have  been 
character  studies  indeed.  The  place  where  the  ghosts 
were  materialized  was  a  large  apartment  over  the  din- 
ing room  of  the  ancient  homestead.  A  dark  closet, 
at  one  end  of  the  room,  with  a  rough  blanket  stretched 
across  it,  served  as  a  cabinet.  Red  Indians  and 
pirates  were  the  favorite  materializations,  but  when 
Madame  Blavatsky  appeared  on  the  scene,  ghosts  of 
Turks,  Kurdish  cavaliers,  and  Kalmucks  visited  this 
earthly  scene,  much  to  the  surprise  of  every  one.  Ol- 
cott  cites  this  fact  as  evidence  of  the  genuineness  of 
the  materializations,  remarking,  "how  could  the  ignor- 
ant Eddy  boys,  rough,  rude,  uncultured  farmers,  get 
the  costumes  and  accessories  for  characters  of  this 
kind  in  a  remote  Vermont  village." 


WHAT  IS  THEOSOPHY?  237 

2.    What  is  Theosophy, 

Let  us  turn  aside  at  this  juncture  to  ask,  "What  is 
Theosophy."    The    word    Theosophy    (Theosophia— - 
divine  knowledge)  appears  to  have  been  used  about 
the  Third  century,  A.  D.,  by  the  Neo-Platonists,  or 
Gnostics  of  Alexandria,  but  the  great  principles  of  the 
doctrine,  however,  were  taught  hundreds  of  years  prior 
to  the  mystical  school  established  at  Alexandria.  "It  is 
not,"  says  an  interesting  writer  on  the  subject,  "an 
outgrowth  of  Buddhism  although  many  Buddhists  see 
in  its  doctrines  the  reflection  of  Buddha.     It  proposes 
to  give  its  followers  the  esoteric,  or  inner-spiritual 
meaning  of  the  great  religious  teachers  of  the  world. 
It  asserts  repeated  re-incarnations,  or  rebirths  of  the 
soul  on  earth,  until  it  is  fully  purged  of  evil,  and  be- 
comes fit   to  be  absorbed  into  the  Deity  whence   it 
came,  gaining  thereby  Nirvana,  or  unconsciousness." 
Some  Theosophists  claim  that  Nirvana  is  not  a  state 
of  unconsciousness,  but  just  the  converse,  a  state  of 
the  most  intensified  consciousness,  during  which  the 
soul  remembers  all  of  its  previous  incarnations. 

Madame  Blavatsky  claimed  that  "there  exists  in 
Thibet  a  brotherhood  whose  members  have  acquired  a 
power  over  Nature  which  enables  them  to  perform 


238  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

wonders  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  men.  She  de- 
clared herself  to  be  a  chela,  or  disciple  of  these 
brothers  (spoken  of  also  as  'Adepts'  and  as  'Mahat- 
mas'), and  asserted  that  they  took  a  special  interest  in 
the  Theosophical  Society  and  all  initiates  in  occult 
lore,  being  able  to  cause  apparitions  of  themselves  in 
places  where  their  bodies  were  not;  and  that  they  not 
only  appeared  but  communicated  intelligently  with 
those  whom  they  thus  visited  and  themselves  per- 
ceived what  was  going  on  where  their  phantoms  ap- 
peared." This  phantasmal  appearance  she  called  the 
projection  of  the  astral  form.  Many  of  the  phenom- 
ena witnessed  in  the  presence  of  the  Sibyl  were  sup- 
posed to  be  the  work  of  the  mystic  brotherhood  who 
took  so  peculiar  an  interest  in  the  Theosophical  So- 
ciety and  its  members.  The  Madame  did  not  claim 
to  be  the  founder  of  a  new  religious  faith,  but  simply 
the  reviver  of  a  creed  that  has  slumbered  in  the  Orient 
for  centuries,  and  declared  herself  to  be  the  Messenger 
of  these  Mahatmas  to  the  scoffing  Western  world. 

Speaking  of  the  Mahatmas,  she  says  in  "Isis  Un- 
veiled": *  *  *  'Travelers  have  met  these  adepts 
on  the  shores  of  the  sacred  Ganges,  brushed  against 
them  on  the  silent  ruins  of  Thebes,  and  in  the  myster- 


WHAT  IS  THEOSOPHY?  339 

ious  deserted  chambers  of  Luxor.  Within  the  halls 
upon  whose  blue  and  golden  vaults  the  weird  signs  at- 
tract attention,  but  whose  secret  meaning  is  never 
penetrated  by  the  idle  gazers,  they  have  been  seen,  but 
seldom  recognized.  Historical  memoirs  have  re- 
corded their  presence  in  the  brilliantly  illuminated 
salons  of  European  aristocracy.  They  have  been  en- 
countered again  on  the  arid  and  desolate  plains  of  the 
Great  Sahara,  or  in  the  caves  of  Elephanta.  They 
may  be  found  everywhere,  but  make  themselves 
known  only  to  those  who  have  devoted  their  lives  to 
unselfish  study,  and  are  not  likely  to  turn  back." 

The  Theosophical  Society  was  organized  in  New 
York,  Nov.  17,  1875. 

Mr.  Arthur  Lillie,  in  his  interesting  work,  "Ma- 
dame Blavatsky  and  Her  Theosophy,"  speaking  about 
the  founding  of  the  Society,  says: 

"Its  moving  spirit  was  a  Mr.  Felt,  who  had  visited 
Egypt  and  studied  its  antiquities.  He  was  a  student 
also  of  the  Kabbala ;  and  he  had  a  somewhat  eccentric 
theory  that  the  dog-headed  and  hawk-headed  figures 
painted  on  the  Egyptian  monuments  were  not  mere 
symbols,  but  accurate  portraits  of  the  'Elemental.' 
He  professed  to  be  able  to  evoke  and  control  them. 


240  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

He  announced  that  he  had  discovered  the  secret  'for- 
mularies' of  the  old  Egyptian  magicians.  Plainly,  the 
Theosophical  Society  at  starting  was  an  Egyptian 
school  of  occultism.  Indeed  Colonel  Olcott,  who  fur- 
nishes these  details  ('Diary  Leaves'  in  the  Theoso- 
phist,  November  to  December,  1892),  lets  out  that  the 
first  title  suggested  was  the  'Egyptological  Society/  ): 

There  were  strange  reports  set  afloat  at  the  time  of 
the  organization  of  the  Society  of  the  mysterious  ap- 
pearance of  a  Hindoo  adept  in  his  astral  body  at  the 
"lamasery"  on  Forty-seventh  street.  It  was  said  to 
be  that  of  a  certain  Mahatma  Koot  Hoomi.  Olcott 
declared  that  the  adept  left  behind  him  as  a  souvenir 
of  his  presence,  a  turban,  which  was  exhibited  on  all 
occasions  by  the  enterprising  Hierophant.  William 
Q.  Judge,  a  noted  writer  on  Spiritualism,  who  had 
met  the  Madame  at  Irving  Place  in  the  winter  of  1874, 
joined  the  Society  about  this  time,  and  became  an 
earnest  advocate  of  the  secret  doctrine.  One  wintry 
evening  in  March,  1889,  Mr.  Judge  attended  a  meet- 
ing of  the  New  York  Anthropological  Society,  and 
told  the  audience  all  about  the  spectral  gentleman, 
Koot  Hoomi.  He  said: 

"The  parent  society  (Theosophical)  was  founded  in 


WHAT  IS  THEOSOPHY?  241 

America  by  Madame  Blavatsky,  who  gathered  about 
her  a  few  interested  people  and  began  the  great  work. 
They  held  a  meeting  to  frame  a  constitution  (1875), 
etc.,  but  before  anything  had  been  accomplished  a 
strangely  foreign  Hindoo,  dressed  in  the  peculiar  garb 


FIG,  37.     WILLIAM  Q.  JtTDGB. 

[Reproduced  by  courtesy  of  the  New  York 

of  his  country,  came  before  them,  and,  leaving  a  pack- 
age, vanished,  and  no  one  knew  whither  he  came  or 
went.  On  opening  the  package  they  found  the  neces- 
sary forms  of  organization,  rules,  etc.,  which  were 
adopted.  The  inference  to  be  drawn  was,  that  the 


242  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

strange  visitor  was  a  Mahatma,  interested  in  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Society." 

And  so  Blavatskyism  flourished,  and  the  Society 
gathered  in  disciples  from  all  quarters.  Men  without 
definite  creeds  are  ever  willing  to  embrace  anything 
that  savors  of  the  mysterious,  however  absurd  the  ten- 
ets of  the  new  doctrine  may  be.  The  objects  of  the 
Theosophical  Society,  as  set  forth  in  a  number  of 
Lucifer,  the  organ  of  the  cult,  published  in  July,  1890, 
are  stated  to  be: 

"1.  To  form  a  nucleus  of  a  Universal  Brotherhood 
of  Humanity  without  distinction  of  race,  creed,  sex,  or 
color. 

"2.  To  promote  the  study  of  Aryan  and  other 
Eastern  literatures,  religions  and  sciences. 

"3.  To  investigate  laws  of  Nature  and  the  psychi- 
cal powers  of  man." 

There  is  nothing  of  cant  or  humbug  about  the  above 
articles.  A  society  founded  for  the  prosecution  of 
such  researches  seems  laudable  enough.  Oriental 
scholars  and  scientists  have  been  working  in  this  field 
for  many  years.  But  the  investigations,  as  conducted 
under  the  Blavatsky  regime,  have  savored  so  of  char- 


WHAT  IS  THEOSOPHY?  243 

latanism    that    many    earnest,    truth-seeking    Theoso- 
phists  have  withdrawn  from  the  Society. 

After  seeing  the  Society  well  established,  Madame 
Blavatsky  went  to  India.  Her  career  in  that  country 
was  a  checkered  one.  From  this  period  dates  the 
expos  <§  of  the  Mahatma  miracles.  The  story  reads 
like  a  romance  by  Marie  Corelli.  Let  us  begin  at  the 
beginning.  The  headquarters  of  the  Society  was  first 
established  at  Bombay,  thence  removed  to  Madras  and 
afterwards  to  Adyar.  A  certain  M.  and  Mme.  Cou- 
lomb, trusted  friends  of  Madame  Blavatsky,  were 
made  librarian  and  assistant  corresponding  secretary 
respectively  of  the  Society,  and  took  up  their  residence 
in  the  building  known  as  the  headquarters — a  ramb- 
ling East  Indian  bungalow,  such  as  figure  in  Rudyard 
Kipling's  stories  of  Oriental  life.  Marvellous  phen- 
omena, of  an  occult  nature,  alleged  to  have  taken  place 
there,  were  attested  by  many  Theosophists.  Myster- 
ious, ghostly  appearances  of  Mahatmas  were  seen,  and 
messages  were  constantly  received  by  supernatural 
means.  One  of  the  apartments  of  the  bungalow  was 
denominated  the  Occult  Room,  and  in  this  room  was 
a  sort  of  cupboard  against  the  wall,  known  as  the 
Shrine.  In  this  shrine  the  ghostly  missives  were  re- 


244  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

ceived  and  from  it  were  sent.     Skeptics  were  con- 
vinced, and  occult  lodges  spread  rapidly  over  India 
among  the  dreamy,  marvel-loving  natives.     But  af- 
fairs were  not  destined  to  sail  smoothly.     There  came 
a  rift  within  the  lute — Madame  Blavatsky  quarreled 
with  her  trusted  lieutenants,  the  Coulombs!     In  May, 
1884,  M.  and  Mme.  Coulomb  were  expelled  from  the 
Society  by  the  General  Council,  during  the  absence  of 
the  High  Priestess  and  Col.  Olcott  in  Europe.     The 
Coulombs,  who  had  grown  weary  of  a  life  of  im- 
posture, or  were  actuated  by  the  more  ignoble  motive 
of  revenge,  made  a  complete  expose  of  the  secret 
working  of  the  Inner  Brotherhood.     They  published 
portions  of  Madame  Blavatsky's  correspondence  in 
the    Madras    Christian    College   Magazine,    for    Sep- 
tember and  October,  1884;  letters  written  to  the  Cou- 
lombs,    directing     them     to     prepare     certain     im- 
postures  and   letters   written   by   the    High   Priest- 
ess,   under    the    signature    of    Koot    Hoomi,    the 
mythical   adept.*     This   correspondence   unquestion- 
ably implicated  the  Sibyl  in  a  conspiracy  to  fraudu- 
lently produce  occult  phenomena.     She  declared  them 
to  be.  in  whole,  or  in  part,  forgeries.     At  this  juncture 


*  NOTE— These  letters  were  purchased  from   the    Christian  College 


*  NOTE— These  letters  were  purchased  irom 
Magazine  by  Dr.  Elliot  Coues,  of  Washington,  D.  C, 


WHAT  IS  THEOSOPHY?  245 

the  London  Society  for  Psychical  Research  sent  Mr. 
Richard  Hodgson,  B.  A.,  scholar  of  St.  John's  College, 
Cambridge,  England,  to  India  to  investigate  the  entire 
matter  in  the  interest  of  science. 

He  left  England  November,  1884,  and  remained  in 
the  East  till  April,  1885.     During  this  period  Blavat- 
skyism  was  sifted  to  the  bottom.     Mr.  Hodgson's  re- 
port covers  several  hundred  pages,  and  proves  con- 
clusively that  the  occult  phenomena  of  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky  and  her  co-adjutors  are  unworthy  of  credence. 
In  his  volume  he  gives  diagrams  of  the  trap-doors  and 
machinery  of  the  shrine  and  the  occult  room,  and  fac- 
similes of  Madame   Blavatsky's  handwriting,  which 
proved  to  be  identical  with  that  of  Koot  Hoomi,  or 
Cute  Hoomi,  as  the  critics  dubbed  him.     He  shows 
that  the  Coulombs  had  told  the  plain  unvarnished 
truth  so  far  as  their  disclosures  went;  and  he  stigma- 
tizes the  Priestess  of  Isis  in  the  following  language: 

"1.  She  has  been  engaged  in  a  long  continued 
combination  with  other  persons  to  produce  by  ordi- 
nary means  a  series  of  apparent  marvels  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  Theosophic  movement. 

"2.  That  in  particular  the  shrine  at  Adyar  through 
which  letters  purporting  to  come  from  Mahatmas  were 


246  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

received,  was  elaborately  arranged  with  a  view  to  the 
secret  insertion  of  letters  and  other  objects  through  a 
sliding  panel  at  the  back,  and  regularly  used  for  the 
purpose  by  Madame  Blavatsky  or  her  agents. 

"3.  That  there  is  consequently  a  very  strong  gen- 
eral presumption  that  all  the  marvellous  narratives  put 
forward  in  evidence  of  the  existence  of  Mahatmas  are 
to  be  explained  as  due  either  (a)  to  deliberate  decep- 
tion carried  out  by  or  at  the  instigation  of  Madame 
Blavatsky,  or  (b)  to  spontaneous  illusion  or  hallucina- 
tion or  unconscious  misrepresentation  or  invention  on 
the  part  of  the  witnesses." 

The  mysterious  appearances  of  the  ghostly  Mahat- 
mas at  the  headquarters  was  shown,  by  Mr.  Hodgson, 
to  be  the  work  of  confederates,  the  cleverest  among 
them  being  Madame  Coulomb.  Sliding  panels,  secret 
doors,  and  many  disguises  were  the  modus  operandi  of 
the  occult  phenomena.  In  regard  to  the  letters  and 
alleged  precipitated  writing,  Mr.  Hodgson  says: 

"It  has  been  alleged,  indeed,  that  when  Madame 
Blavatsky  was  at  Madras,  instantaneous  replies  to 
mental  queries  had  been  found  in  the  shrine  (at 
Adyar),  that  envelopes  containing  questions  were  re- 
turned absolutely  intact  to  the  senders,  and  that  when 


WHAT  IS  THEOSOPHY?  247 

they  were  opened  replies  were  found  within  in  the 
handwriting  of  a  Mahatma.  After  numerous  inquir- 
ies, I  found  that  in  all  cases  I  could  hear  of,  the  mental 
query  was  such  as  might  easily  have  been  anticipated 
by  Madame  Blavatsky;  indeed,  the  query  was  whether 
the  questioner  would  meet  with  success  in  his  en- 
deavor to  become  a  pupil  of  the  Mahatma,  and  the  an- 
swer was  frequently  of  the  indefinite  and  oracular  sort. 
In  some  cases  the  envelope  inserted  in  the  Shrine  was 
one  which  had  been  previously  sent  to  headquarters 
for  that  purpose,  so  that  the  envelope  might  have  been 
opened  and  the  answer  written  therein  before  it  was 
placed  in  the  Shrine  at  all.  Where  sufficient  care  was 
taken  in  the  preparation  of  the  inquiry,  either  no  spe- 
cific answer  was  given  or  the  answer  was  delayed." 

A  certain  phenomenon,  frequently  mentioned  by 
Theosophists  as  having  occurred  in  Madame  Blavat- 
sky's  sitting-room,  was  the  dropping  of  a  letter  from 
the  ceiling,  supposed  to  be  a  communication  from  some 
Mahatma.  In  all  such  cases  conjuring  was  proved  to 
have  been  used — the  deus  ex  machina  being  either  a 
silk  thread  or  else  a  cunningly  secreted  trap  door  hid- 
den between  the  wooden  beams  of  the  bungalow  ceil- 
ing, operated  of  course  by  a  concealed  confederate. 


248  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

Madam  Blavatsky's  favorite  method  of  impressing 
people  with  her  occult  powers  was  the  almost  imme- 
diate reception  of  letters  from  distant  countries,  in  re- 
sponse to  questions  asked.  These  feats  were  the  re- 
sult of  carefully  contrived  plans,  preconcerted  weeks 
in  advance.  She  would  telegraph  in  cipher  to  one  of 
her  numerous  correspondents,  East  Indian,  for  ex- 
ample, to  write  a  letter  in  reply  to  a  certain  query, 
and  post  it  at  a  particular  date.  Then  she  would  cal- 
culate the  arrival  of  the  letter,  often  to  a  nicety.  Her 
ability  as  a  conversationalist  enabled  her  to  adroitly 
lead  people  into  asking  questions  that  would  tally  with 
the  Mahatma  messages.  But  sometimes  she  failed, 
and  a  ludicrous  fiasco  was  the  result.  Mr.  Hodgson's 
report  contains  accounts  of  many  such  mystic  letters 
that  would  arrive  by  post  from  India  in  the  nick  of 
time,  or  too  late  for  use. 

Among  other  remarkable  things  reported  of  the 
Madame  was  her  power  of  producing  photographs  of 
people  far  away  by  a  sort  of  spiritual  photography,  in- 
volving no  other  mechanical  process  than  the  slipping 
of  a  sheet  of  paper  between  the  leaves  of  her  blotting 
pad. 

When  stories  of  this  spirit-photography  were  rife 


WHAT  IS  THEOSOPHY?  249 

in  London,  a  scientist  published  the  following  ex- 
planation of  a  method  of  making  such  Mahatma  por- 
traits : 

"Has  the  English  public  never  heard  of  'Magic 
photography?'  Just  a  few  years  ago  small  sheets  of 
white  paper  were  offered  for  sale  which  on  being  cov- 
ered with  damp  blotting  paper  developed  an  image  as 
if  by  magic.  The  white  sheets  of  paper  seemed 
blanks.  Really,  however,  they  were  photographs,  not 
containing  gold,  which  had  been  bleached  by  immers- 
ing them  in  a  solution  of  mercuric  chloride.  The 
latter  gives  up  part  of  its  chlorine,  and  this  chlorine 
bleaches  the  brown  silver  particles  of  which  the  pho^ 
tograph  consists,  by  changing  them  to  chloride  of  sil- 
ver. The  mercuric  chloride  becomes  mercurous 
chloride.  This  body  is  white,  and  therefore  invisible 
on  white  paper.  Now,  several  substances  will  color 
this  white  mercurous  chloride  black.  Ammonia  and 
hypo-sulphite  of  soda  will  do  this.  In  the  magic  pho- 
tographs before  mentioned  the  blotting  paper  con- 
tained hypo-sulphite  of  soda.  Consequently  when  the 
alleged  blank  sheets  of  white  note  paper  were  placed 
between  the  sheets  of  blotting  paper  and  slightly 
moistened,  the  hypo-sulphite  of  soda  in  the  blotting 


250  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

paper  acted  chemically  on  the  mercurous  chloride  in ' 
the  white  note  paper,  and  the  picture  appeared.     As 
this  was  known  in  1840  to  Herschel,  Blavatsky's  mir- 
acle is  nothing  but  a  commonplace  conjuring  experi- 
ment." 

3.    Madame  Blavatsky's  Confession, 

The  individual  to  whom  the  world  is  most  indebted 
for  a  critical  analysis  of  Madame  Blavatsky's  .char- 
acter and  her  claims  as  a  producer  of  occult  phenom- 
ena is  Vsevolod  S.  Solovyoff,  a  Russian  journalist  and 
litterateur  of  considerable  note.  'He  has  ruthlessly 
torn  the  veil  from  the  Priestess  of  Isis  in  a  remark- 
able book  of  revelations,  entitled,  "A  Modern  Priest- 
ess of  Isis."  In  May,  1884,  he  was  in  Paris,  engaged 
in  studying  occult  literature,  and  was  preparing  to 
write  a  treatise  on  "the  rare,  but  in  my  opinion,  real 
manifestations  of  the  imperfectly  investigated  spiritual 
powers  of  man."  One  day  he  read  in  the  Matin 
that  Madame  Blavatsky  had  arrived  in  Paris,  and  he 
determined  to  meet  her.  Thanks  to  a  friend  in  St. 
Petersburg,  he  obtained  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
the  famous  Theosophist,  and  called  on  her  a  few  days 
later,  at  her  residence  in  the  Rue  Notre  Dame  des 


HER  CONFESSION.  251 

Champs.     His  pen  picture  of  the  interview  is  graphic: 

"I  found  myself  in  a  long,  mean  street  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Seine,  de  I'autre  cote  de  I'eau,  as  the  Parisians 
say.  The  coachman  stopped  at  the  number  I  had  told 
him.  The  house  was  unsightly  enough  to  look  at, 
and  at  the  door  there  was  not  a  single  carriage. 

"  'My  dear  sir,  you  have  let  her  slip;  she  has  left 
Paris/  I  said  to  myself  with  vexation. 

"In  answer  to  my  inquiry  the  concierge  showed  me 
the  way.  I  climbed  a  very,  very  dark  staircase,  rang, 
and  a  slovenly  figure  in  an  Oriental  turban  admitted 
me  into  a  tiny  dark  lobby. 

"To  my  question,  whether  Madame  Blavatsky 
would  receive  me,  the  slovenly  figure  replied  with  an 
'Entrez,  monsieur'  and  vanished  with  my  card,  while 
I  was  left  to  wait  in  a  small  low  room,  poorly  and  in- 
sufficiently furnished. 

"I  had  not  long  to  wait.  The  door  opened,  and  she 
was  before  me;  a  rather  tall  woman,  though  she  pro- 
duced the  impression  of  being  short,  on  account  of  her 
unusual  stoutness.  Her  great  head  seemed  all  the 
greater  from  her  thick  and  very  bright  hair,  touched 
with  a  scarcely  perceptible  gray,  and  very  slightly 


252  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

frizzed,  by  nature  and  not  by  art,  as  I  subsequently 
convinced  myself. 

"At  the  first  moment  her  plain,  old  earthy-colored 
face  struck  me  as  repulsive;  but  she  fixed  on  me  the 
gaze  of  her  great,  rolling,  pale  blue  eyes,  and  in  these 
wonderful  eyes,  with  their  hidden  power,  all  the  rest 
was  forgotten. 

"I  remarked,  however,  that  she  was  very  strangely 
dressed,  in  a  sort  of  black  sacque,  and  that  all  the 
fingers  of  her  small,  soft,  and  as  it  were  boneless 
hands,  with  their  slender  points  and  long  nails,  were 
covered  with  great  jewelled  rings." 

Madame  Blavatsky  received  Solovyoff  kindly,  and 
they  became  excellent  friends.  She  urged  him  to  join 
the  Theosophical  Society,  and  he  expressed  himself 
as  favorably  impressed  with  the  purposes  of  the  or- 
ganization. During  the  interview  she  produced  her 
astral  bell  "phenomenon."  She  excused  herself  to  at- 
tend to  some  domestic  duty,  and  on  her  return  to  the 
sitting-room,  the  phenomenon  took  place.  Says  So- 
lovyoff: "She  made  a  sort  of  flourish  with  her  hand, 
raised  it  upwards  and  suddenly,  I  heard  distinctly, 
quite  distinctly,  somewhere  above  our  heads,  near  the 


HER  CONFESSION.  253 

ceiling,  a  very  melodious  sound  like  a  little  silver  bell 
or  an  Aeolian  harp. 

"  'What  is  the  meaning  of  this?'  I  asked. 

"  This  means  only  that  my  master  is  here,  although 
you  and  I  cannot  see  him.  He  tells  me  that  I  may 
trust  you,  and  am  to  do  for  you  whatever  I  can.  Vous 
etes  sous  sa  protection,  henceforth  and  forever/ 

"She  looked  me  straight  in  the  eyes,  and  caressed 
me  with  her  glance  and  her  kindly  smile." 

This  Mahatmic  phenomenon  ought  to  have  abso- 
lutely convinced  Solovyoff,  but  it  did  not.  He  asked 
himself  the  question: 

"  'Why  was  the  sound  of  the  silver  bell  not  heard  at 
once,  but  only  after  she  had  left  the  room  and  come 
back  again ?'" 

A  few  days  after  this  event,  the  Russian  journalist 
was  regularly  enrolled  as  a  member  of  the  Theosophi- 
cal  Society,  and  began  to  study  Madame  Blavatsky 
instead  of  Oriental  literature  and  occultism.  He  was 
introduced  to  Colonel  Olcott,  who  showed  him  the 
turban  that  had  been  left  at  the  New  York  headquar- 
ters by  the  astral  Koot  Hoomi.  Solovyoff  witnessed 
other  "phenomena"  in  the  presence  of  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky, which  did  not  impress  him  very  favorably. 


254  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

Finally,  the  High  Priestess  produced  her  chef  d* 
oewvre,  the  psychometric  reading  of  a  letter.  Solovyoff 
was  rather  impressed  with  this  feat  and  sent  an  ac- 
count of  it  to  the  Rebus,  but  subsequently  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  trickery  had  entered  into  it.  When 
the  Coulomb  exposures  came,  he  did  not  see  much  of 
Madame  Blavatsky.  She  was  overwhelmed  with  let- 
ters and  spent  a  considerable  time  anxiously  travelling 
to  and  fro  on  Theosophical  affairs.  In  August,  1885, 
she  was  at  Wurzburg  sick  at  heart  and  in  body,  at- 
tended by  a  diminutive  Hindoo  servant,  Bavaji  by 
name.  She  begged  Solovyoff  to  visit  her,  promising 
to  give  him  lessons  in  occultism.  With  a  determina- 
tion to  investigate  the  "phenomena,"  he  went  to  the 
Bavarian  watering  place,  and  one  morning  called  on 
Madame  Blavatsky.  He  found  her  seated  in  a  great 
arm  chair: 

"At  the  opposite  end  of  the  table  stood  the  dwarfish 
Bavaji,  with  a  confused  look  in  his  dulled  eyes.  He 
was  evidently  incapable  of  meeting  my  gaze,  and  the 
fact  certainly  did  not  escape  me.  In  front  of  Bavaji 
on  the  table  were  scattered  several  sheets  of  clean 
paper.  Nothing  of  the  sort  had  occurred  before,  so 


HER  CONFESSION.  255 

my  attention  was  the  more  aroused.     In  his  hand  was 
a  great  thick  pencil.     I  began  to  have  ideas. 

"  'Just  look  at  the  unfortunate  man/  said  Helena 
Petrovna  suddenly,  turning  to  me.  'He  does  not  look 
himself  at  all ;  he  drives  me  to  distraction'.  .  .  Then 
she  passed  from  Bavaji  to  the  London  Society  for  Psy- 
chical Research,  and  again  tried  to  persuade  me  about 
the  'master.'  Bavaji  stood  like  a  statue;  he  could  take 
no  part  in  our  conversation,  as  he  did  not  know  a 
word  of  Russian. 

"  'But  such  incredulity  as  to  the  evidence  of  your 
own  eyes,  such  obstinate  infidelity  as  yours,  is  simply 
unpardonable.  In  fact,  it  is  wicked!'  exclaimed  He- 
lena Petrovna. 

"I  was  walking  about  the  room  at  the  time,  and  did 
not  take  my  eyes  off  Bavaji.  I  saw  that  he  was  keeping 
his  eyes  wide  open,  with  a  sort  of  contortion  of  his 
whole  body,  while  his  hand,  armed  with  a  great  pen- 
cil, was  carefully  tracing  some  letters  on  a  sheet  of 
paper. 

"'Look;  what  is  the  matter  with  him?'  exclaimed 
Madame  Blavatsky. 

"  'Nothing  particular/  I  answered;  'he  is  writing  in 
Russian/ 


256  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

"I  saw  her  whole  face  grow  purple.  She  began  to 
stir  in  her  chair,  with  an  obvious  desire  to  get  up  and 
take  the  paper  from  him.  But  with  her  swollen  and 
almost  inflexible  limbs,  she  could  not  do  so  with  any 
speed.  I  made  haste  to  seize  the  paper  and  saw  on 
it  a  beautifully  drawn  Russian  phrase. 

"Bavaji  was  to  have  written,  in  the  Russian  lan- 
guage with  which  he  was  not  acquainted:  'Blessed 
are  they  that  believe,  as  said  the  Great  Adept/  He 
had  learned  his  task  well,  and  remembered  correctly 
the  form  of  all  the  letters,  but  he  had  omitted  two  in 
the  word  'believe/  [The  effect  was  precisely  the  same 
as  if  in  English  he  had  omitted  the  first  two  and  last 
two  letters  of  the  word.] 

"  'Blessed  are  they  that  lie'  I  read  aloud,  unable  to 
control  the  laughter  which  shook  me.  'That  is  the 
best  thing  I  ever  saw.  Oh,  Bavaji!  you  should  have 
got  your  lesson  up  better  for  examination!' 

"The  tiny  Hindoo  hid  his  face  in  his  hands  and 
rushed  out  of  the  room ;  I  heard  his  hysterical  sobs  in 
the  distance.  Madame  Blavatsky  sat  with  distorted 
features." 

As  will  be  seen  from  the  above,  the  Hindoo  servant 
was  one  of  the  Madame's  Mahatmas,  and  was  caught 


HER  CONFESSION.  257 

in  the  act  of  preparing  a  communication  from  a  sage 
in  the  Himalayas,  to  Solovyoff. 

"After  this  abortive  phenomena,"  remarks  the  Rus- 
sian journalist,  "things  marched  faster,  and  I  saw  that 
I  should  soon  be  in  a  position  to  send  very  interesting 
additions  to  the  report  of  the  Psychical  Society."  .  . 
"Every  day  when  I  came  to  see  the  Madame  she  used 
to  try  to  do  me  a  favor  in  the  shape  of  some  trifling 
'phenomenon/  but  she  never  succeeded.  Thus  one 
day  her  famous  'silver  bell'  was  heard,  when  suddenly 
something  fell  beside  her  on  the  ground.  I  hurried 
to  pick  it  up — and  found  in  my  hands  a  pretty  little 
piece  of  silver,  delicately  worked  and  strangely  shaped. 
Helena  Petrovna  changed  countenance,  and  snatched 
the  object  from  me.  I  coughed  significantly,  smiled 
and  turned  the  conversation  to  indifferent  matters." 

On  another  occasion  he  was  conversing  with  her 
about  the  "Theosophist,"  and  "she  mentioned  the 
name  of  Subba  Rao,  a  Hindoo,  who  had  attained  the 
highest  degree  of  knowledge."  She  directed  Mr. 
Solovyoff  to  open  a  drawer  in  her  writing  desk,  and 
take  from  it  a  photograph  of  the  adept. 

"I  opened  the  drawer,"  says  Solovyoff,  "found  the 
photograph  and  handed  it  to  her— together  with  a 


258  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

packet  of  Chinese  envelopes  (See  Fig.  34),  such  as  I 
well  knew;  they  were  the  same  in  which  the  'elect'  used 
to  receive  the  letters  of  the  Mahatmas  Morya  and 
Koot  Hoomi  by  'astral  post/ 

"Took  at  that,  Helena  Petrovna!  I  should  advise 
you  to  hide  this  packet  of  the  master's  envelopes  far- 
ther off.  You  are  so  terribly  absent-minded  and  care- 
less/ 

"It  was  easy  to  imagine  what  this  was  to  her.  I 
looked  at  her  and  was  positively  frightened;  her  face 
grew, perfectly  black.  She  tried  in  vain  to  speak;  she 
could  only  writhe  helplessly  in  her  great  arm-chair." 

Solovyoff  with  great  adroitness  gradually  drew  from 
her  a  confession.  "What  is  one  to  do,"  said  Madame 
Blavatsky,  plaintively,  "when  in  order  to  rule  men  it 
is  necessary  to  deceive-  them;  almost  invariably  the 
more  simple,  the  more  silly,  and  the  more  gross  the 
phenomenon,  the  more  likely  it  is  to  succeed."  The 
Priestess  of  Isis  broke  down  completely  and  acknowl- 
edged that  her  phenomena  were  not  genuine ;  the  Koot 
Hoomi  letters  were  written  by  herself  and  others  in 
collusion  with  her;  finally  she  exhibited  to  the  journal- 
ist the  apparatus  for  producing  the  "astral  bell,"  and 
begged  him  to  go  into  a  co-partnership  with  her  to 


HER  CONFESSION.  259 

astonish  the  world.  He  refused!  The  next  day  she 
declared  that  a  black  magician  had  spoken  through 
her  mouth,  and  not  herself;  she  was  not  responsible 
for  what  she  had  said.  After  this  he  had  other  inter- 
views with  her;  threats  and  promises;  and  lastly  a 
most  extraordinary  letter,  which  was  headed,  "My 
Confession,"  and  reads,  in  part,  as  follows: 

"Believe  me,  /  have  fallen  because  I  have  made  up  my 
mind  to  fall,  or  else  to  bring  about  a  reaction  by  tell- 
ing all  God's  truth  about  myself,  but  without  mercy  on 
my  enemies.  On  this  I  am  firmly  resolved,  and  from 
this  day  I  shall  begin  to  prepare  myself  in  order  to  be 
ready.  I  will  fly  no  more.  Together  with  this  letter, 
or  a  few  hours  later,  I  shall  myself  be  in  Paris,  and 
then  on  to  London.  A  Frenchman  is  ready,  and  a 
well-known  journalist  too,  delighted  to  set  about  the 
work  and  to  write  at  my  dictation  something  short, 
but  strong,  and  what  is  most  important — a  true  history 
of  my  life.  I  shall  not  even  attempt  to  defend,  to  justify 
myself.  In  this  book  I  shall  simply  say:  "In  1848,  I, 
hating  my  husband,  N.  V.  Blavatsky  (it  may  have  been 
wrong,  but  still  such  was  the  nature  God  gave  me), 
left  him,  abandoned  him — a  virgin.  (I  shall  produce 
documents  and  letters  proving  this,  although  he  himself 


260  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

is  not  such  a  swine  as  to  deny  it.)  I  loved  one  man  deep- 
ly, but  still  more  I  loved  occult  science,  believing  in 
magic,  wizards,  etc.  I  wandered  with  him  here  and 
there,  in  Asia,  in  America,  and  in  Europe.  I  met  with 
So-and-so.  (You  may  call  him  a  wizard,  what  does  it 
matter  to  him?)  In  1858  I  was  in  London;  there 
came  out  some  story  about  a  child,  not  mine  (there 
will  follow  medical  evidence,  from  the  faculty  of  Paris, 
and  it  is  for  this  that  I  am  going  to  Paris).  One  thing 
and  another  was  said  of  me;  that  I  was  depraved,  pos- 
sessed with  a  devil,  etc. 

"I  shall  tell  everything  as  I  think  fit,  everything  I  did, 
for  the  twenty  years  and  more,  that  I  laughed  at  the 
qu'en  dira-t-on,  and  covered  up  all  traces  of  what  I  was 
really  occupied  in,  i.  e.,  the  sciences  occultes,  for  the 
sake  of  my  family  and  relations  who  would  at  that  time 
have  cursed  me.  I  will  tell  how  from  my  eighteenth 
year  I  tried  to  get  people  to  talk  about  me,  and  say 
about  me  that  this  man  and  that  was  my  lover,  and 
hundreds  of  them.  I  will  tell,  too,  a  great  deal  of 
which  no  one  ever  dreamed,  and  I  will  prove  it.  Then 
I  will  inform  the  world  how  suddenly  my  eyes  were 
opened  to  all  the  horror  of  my  moral  suicide;  how  I 
was  sent  to  America  to  try  my  psychological  capabili- 


HER  CONFESSION.  261 

ties;  how  I  collected  a  society  there,  and  began  to  ex- 
piate my  faults,  and  attempted  to  make  men  better  and 
to  sacrifice  myself  for  their  regeneration.  I  will  name 
all  the  Theosophists  who  were  brought  into  the  right 
way,  drunkards  and  rakes,  who  became  almost  saints, 
especially  in  India,  and  those  who  enlisted  as  Theoso- 
phists, and  continued  their  former  life,  as  though  they 
were  doing  the  work  (and  there  are  many  of  them)  and 
yet  were  the  first  to  join  the  pack  of  hounds  that  were 
hunting  me  down,  and  to  bite  me  .... 

"No!    The  devils  will  save  me  in  this  last  great  hour. 
You  did  not  calculate  on  the  cool  determination  of 
despair,  which  was  and  has  passed  over.    .    .    .   And 
to  this  I  have  been  brought  by  you.    You  have  been 
the  last  straw  which  has  broken  the  camel's  back  un- 
der its  intolerably  heavy  burden.     Now  you  are  at 
liberty  to  conceal  nothing.     Repeat  to  all  Paris  what 
you  have  ever  heard  or  know  about  me.     I  have  al- 
ready written  a  letter  to  Sinnett  forbidding  him  to  pub- 
lish my  memoirs  at  his  own  discretion.     I  myself  will 
publish  them  with  all  the  truth.     ...    It  will  be  a 
Saturnalia  of  the  moral  depravity  of  mankind,  this 
confession  of  mine,  a  worthy  epilogue  of  my  stormy 
life.  Let  the  psychist  gentlemen,  and  who- 


262  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

soever  will,  set  on  foot  a  new  inquiry.  Mohini  and  all 
the  rest,  even  India,  are  dead  for  me.  I  thirst  for  one 
thing  only,  that  the  world  may  know  all  the  reality, 
all  the  truth,  and  learn  the  lesson.  And  then  death, 
kindest  of  all.  H.  BLAVATSKY. 

"You  may  print  this  letter  if  you  will,  even  in  Russia. 
It  is  all  the  same  now." 

This  remarkable  effusion  may  be  the  result  of  a 
fever-disordered  brain,  it  may  be,  as  she  says,  the 
"God's  truth;"  at  any  rate  it  bears  the  ear-marks  of 
the  Blavatsky  style  about  it.  The  disciples  of  the 
High  Priestess  of  Isis  have  bitterly  denounced  So- 
lovyoff  and  the  revelations  contained  in  his  book. 
They  brand  him  as  a  coward  for  not  having  published 
his  diatribe  during  the  lifetime  of  the  Madame,  when 
she  was  able  to  defend  herself.  However  that  may  be, 
Solovyoff's  exposures  tally  very  well  with  the  mass 
of  corroborative  evidence  adduced  by  Hodgson, 
Coues,  Coleman,  and  a  host  of  writers,  who  began 
their  attacks  during  the  earthly  pilgrimage  of  the 
great  Sibyl. 

On  receipt  of  this  letter,  Feb-  16,  1886,  Solovyoff 
resigned  from  the  Theosophical  Society.  He  de- 
nounced the  High  Priestess  to  the  Paris  Theosophists, 


HER  CONFESSION.  263 

and  the  Blavatsky  lodges  in  that  city  were  disrupted 
in  consequence  of  the  exposures.  This  seems  to  be 
a  convincing  proof  of  the  genuineness  of  his  revela- 
tions. After  the  Solovyoff  incident,  Madame  Blavat- 
sky went  into  retirement  for  a  while.  Eventually  she 
appeared  in  London  as  full  of  enthusiasm  as  ever  and 
added  to  her  list  of  converts  the  Countess  of  Caithness 
and  Mrs.  Annie  Besant,  the  famous  socialist  and  au- 
thoress. 

Finally  came  the  last  act  of  this  strange  life-drama. 
That  messenger  of  death,  whom  the  mystical  Persian 
singer,  Omar  Khayyam,  calls  "The  Angel  of  the 
Darker  Drink,"  held  to  her  lips  the  inevitable  chalice 
of  Mortality;  then  the  "golden  cord  was  loosened  and 
the  silver  bowl  was  broken/'  and  she  passed  into  the 
land  of  shadows.  It  was  in  London,  May  8, 1891,  that 
Helena  Petrovna  Blavatsky  ended  one  of  the  strangest 
careers  on  record.  She  died  calmly  and  peacefully  in 
her  bed,  surrounded  by  her  friends,  and  after  her  de- 
mise her  body  was  cremated  by  her  disciples,  with  oc- 
cult rites  and  ceremonies.  All  that  remained  of  her — 
a  few  handfuls  of  powdery  white  ashes — was  gathered 
together,  and  divided  into  three  equal  parts.  One 
portion  was  buried  in  London,  one  sent  to  New  York 


264  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

City,  and  the  third  to  Adyar,  near  Madras,  India.  The 
New  World,  the  Old  World,  and  the  still  Older  World 
of  the  East  were  honored  with  the  ashes  of  H.  P.  B. 
Three  civilizations,  three  heaps  of  ashes,  three  initials 
— mystic  number  from  time  immemorial,  celebrated 
symbol  of  Divinity  known  to,  and  revered  by,  Ca- 
balists,  Gnostics,  Rosicrucians,  and  Theosophists. 

Mr.  J.  Ransom  Bridges,  who  had  considerable  cor- 
respondence with  the  High  Priestess  from  1888  until 
her  death,  says  (Arena,  April,  1895):  "Whatever  may 
be  the  ultimate  verdict  upon  the  life  and  work  of  this 
woman,  her  place  in  history  will  be  unique.  There 
was  a  Titanic  display  of  strength  in  everything  she  did. 
The  storms  that  raged  in  her  were  cyclones.  Those 
exposed  to  them  often  felt  with  Solovyoff  that  if  there 
were  holy  and  sage  Mahatmas,  they  could  not  remain 
holy  and  sage,  and  have  anything  to  do  with  Helena 
Petrovna  Blavatsky.  The  'confession*  she  wrote 
rings  with  the  mingled  curses  and  mad  laughter  of  a 
crazy  mariner  scuttling  his  own  ship.  Yet  she  could 
be  as  tender  and  sympathetic  as  any  mother.  Her 
mastery  of  some  natures  seemed  complete;  and  these 
people  she  worked  like  galley-slaves  in  the  Theosoph- 
ical  tread  mill  of  her  propaganda  movement. 


HER  WRITINGS.  265 

"To  these  disciples  she  was  the  greatest  thaumatur- 
gist  known  to  the  world  since  the  days  of  the  Christ. 
The  attacks  upon  her,  the  Coulomb  and  Solovyoff  ex- 
posures, the  continual  newspaper  calumnies  they  look 
upon  as  a  gigantic  conspiracy  brewed  by  all  the  rules 
of  the  black  art  to  counteract,  and,  if  possible,  to  des- 
troy the  effect  of  her  work  and  mission." 

"Requiescat  in  Pace,"  O  Priestess  of  Isis,  until 
your  next  incarnation  on  Earth!  The  twentieth  cen- 
tury will  doubtless  have  need  of  your  services!  For 
the  delectation  of  the  curious  let  me  add:  the  English 
resting  place  of  Madame  Blavatsky  is  designed  after 
the  model  of  an  Oriental  "dagoba,"  or  tomb;  the 
American  shrine  is  a  marble  niche  in  the  wall  of  the 
Theosophical  headquarters,  No.  144  Madison  avenue, 
the  ashes  reposing  in  a  vase  standing  in  the  niche  be- 
hind a  hermetically-sealed  glass  window.  The  Orien- 
tal shrine  in  Adyar  is  a  tomb  modelled  after  the  world- 
famous  Taj  Mahal,  and  is  built  of  pink  sandstone,  sur- 
mounted by  a  small  Benares  copper  spire. 

4,    The  Writings  of  Madame  Blavatsky, 

Madame  Blavatsky  is  known  to  the  reading  world 
as  the  writer  of  two  voluminous  works  of  a  philosophi- 


266  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

cal  or  mystical  character,  explanatory  of  the  Esoteric 
Doctrine,  viz.,  "Isis  Unveiled,"  published  in  1877,  and 
the  "Secret  Doctrine,"  published  in  1888.  In  the 
composition  of  these  works  she  claimed  that  she  was 
assisted  by  the  Mahatmas  who  visited  her  apartments 
when  she  was  asleep,  and  wrote  portions  of  the  manu- 
scripts with  their  astral  hands  while  their  natural 
bodies  reposed  entranced  in  Thibetan  Lamaseries. 
These  fictions  were  fostered  by  prominent  members 
of  the  Theosophical  Society,  and  believed  by  many 
credulous  persons.  "Isis  Unveiled"  is  a  hodge-podge 
of  absurdities,  pseudo-science,  mythology  and  folk- 
lore, arranged  in  helter-skelter  fashion,  with  an  utter 
disregard  of  logical  sequence.  The  fact  was  that 
Madame  Blavatsky  had  a  very  imperfect  knowledge 
of  English,  and  this  may  account  for  the  strange  mis- 
takes in  which  the  volume  abounds,  despite  the  aid  of 
the  ghostly  Mahatmas.  William  Emmette  Coleman, 
of  San  Francisco,  has  made  an  exhaustive  analysis 
of  the  Madame's  writings,  and  declares  that  "Isis," 
and  the  "Secret  Doctrine"  are  full  of  plagiarisms.  In 
"Isis"  he  discovered  "some  2,000  passages  copied  from 
other  books  without  proper  credit."  Speaking  of  the 
"Secret  Doctrine,"  the  master  key  to  the  wisdom  of 


HER  WRITINGS.  267 

the  ages,  he  says:  'The  'Secret  Doctrine'  is  ostensibly 
based  upon  certain  stanzas,  claimed  to  have  been  trans- 
lated by  Madame  Blavatsky  from  the  'Book  of  Dzyan' 
— the  oldest  book  in  the  world,  written  in  a  lan- 
guage unknown  to  philology.  The  'Book  of  Dzyan' 
was  the  work  of  Madame  Blavatsky — a  compilation,  in 
her  own  language,  from  a  variety  of  sources,  embrac- 
ing the  general  principles  of  the  doctrines  and  dogmas 
taught  in  the  'Secret  Doctrine/  I  find  in  this  'oldest 
book  in  the  world'  statements  copied  from  nineteenth 
century  books,  and  in  the  usual  blundering  manner  of 
Madame  Blavatsky.  Letters  and  other  writings  of  the 
adepts  are  found  in  the  'Secret  Doctrine.'  In  these 
Mahatmic  productions  I  have  traced  various  plagiar- 
ized passages  from  Wilson's  'Vishnu  Purana,'  and 
Winchell's  'World  Life' — of  like  character  to  those  in 
Madame  Blavatsky's  acknowledged  writings.  *  *  * 
A  specimen  of  the  wholesale  plagiarisms  in  this  book 
appears  in  vol.  II.,  pp.  599-603.  Nearly  the  whole  of 
four  pages  was  copied  from  Oliver's  'Pythagorean 
Triangle/  while  only  a  few  lines  were  credited  to  that 
work." 

Those  who  are  interested  in  Coleman's  exposS  are 
referred  to  Appendix  C,  of  Solovyoff's  book,  "A  Mod- 


268  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

era  Priestess  of  Isis."  The  title  of  this  appendix  is 
'The  Sources  of  Madame  Blavatsky's  Writings."  Mr. 
Coleman  is  at  present  engaged  in  the  preparation  of 
an  elaborate  work  on  the  subject,  which  will  in  addi- 
tion contain  an  "expos£  of  Theosophy  as  a  whole." 
It  will  no  doubt  prove  of  interest  to  students  of  oc- 
cultism. 

0,    Life  and  Death  of  a  Famous  Theosophist. 

The  funeral  of  Baron  de  Palm,  conducted  according 
to  Theosophical  rites,  is  an  interesting  chapter  in  the 
history  of  the  Society,  and  worth  relating. 

Joseph  Henry  Louis  Charles,  Baron  de  Palm,  Grand 
Cross  Commander  of  the  Sovereign  Order  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem,  and  knight  of  various  orders, 
was  born  at  Augsburg,  May  10,  1809.  He  came  to 
the  United  States  rather  late  in  life,  drifted  West  with- 
out any  settled  occupation,  and  lived  from  hand  to 
mouth  in  various  Western  cities.  Finally  he  located 
in  New  York  City,  broken  in  health  and  spirit.  He 
was  a  man  of  considerable  culture  and  interested  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  in  the  phenomena  of  modern 
Spiritualism.  A  letter  of  introduction  from  the  editor 
of  the  Rcligio-Philosophical  Journal,  of  Chicago, 


A  FAMOUS  THEOSOPHIST.  269 

made  him  acquainted  with  Col.  Olcott,  who  intro- 
duced him  to  prominent  members  of  the  Theosophical 
Society.     He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Society, 
eventually  becoming  a  member  of  the  Council.     In 
the  year  1875  he  died,  leaving  behind  an  earnest  re- 
quest that  Col.  Olcott  "should  perform  the  last  offices 
in  a  fashion  that  would  illustrate  the  Eastern  notions 
of  death  and  immortality."*     He  also  left  directions 
that  his  body  should  be  cremated.     A  great  deal  of 
excitement  was  caused  over  this  affair  in  orthodox  re- 
ligious circles,  and  public  curiosity  was  aroused  to  the 
highest  pitch.     The  funeral  service  was,  as  Madame 
Blavatsky  described  it  in  a  letter  to  a  European  corre- 
spondent, "pagan,  almost  antique  pagan."     The  cere- 
mony was  held  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Masonic  Tem- 
ple, corner  of  Twenty-third  and  Sixth  avenue.     Tick- 
ets of  admission  were  issued  of  decidedly  occult  shape 
— triangular;   some   black,   printed   in   silver;   others 
drab,  printed  in  black.     A  crowd  of  2,000  people  as- 
sembled to  witness  the  obsequies.    On  the  stage  was 
a  triangular  altar,  with  a  symbolical  fire  burning  upon 
it.    The  coffin  stood  near  by,  covered  with  the  orders 
of  knighthood  of  the  deceased.    A  splendid  choir  ren- 

*  "Old  Diary  Reaves"— Olcott. 


270  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

dered  several  Orphic  hymns  composed  for  the  oc- 
casion, with  organ  accompaniment,  and  Col.  Olcott, 
as  Hierophant,  made  an  invocation  or  mantram  "to  the 
Soul  of  the  World  whose  breath  gives  and  withdraws 
the  form  of  everything."  Death  is  always  solemn, 
and  no  subject  for  levity,  yet  I  must  not  leave  out  of 
this  chronicle  the  unique  burlesque  programme  of 
Baron  de  Palm's  funeral,  published  by  the  New  York 
World,  the  day  before  the  event.  Says  the  World: 

"The  procession  will  move  in  the  following  order: 

"Col.  Olcott  as  high  priest,  wearing  a  leopard  skin 
and  carrying  a  roll  of  papyrus  (brown  card  board). 

"Mr.  Cobb,  as  sacred  scribe,  with  style  and  tablet. 

"Egyptian  mummy-case,  borne  upon  a  sledge 
drawn  by  four  oxen.  (Also  a  slave  bearing  a  pot  of 
lubricating  oil.) 

"Madame  Blavatsky  as  chief  mourner  and  also 
bearer  of  the  sistrum.  (She  will  wear  a  long  linen 
garment  extending  to  the  feet,  and  a  girdle  about  the 
waist.) 

"Colored  boy  carrying  three  Abyssinian  geese 
(Philadelphia  chickens)  to  place  upon  the  bier. 

"Vice-President  Felt,  with  the  eye  of  Osiris  painted 


A  FAMOUS  THEOSOPHIST.  271 

on  his  left  breast,  and  carrying  an  asp  (bought  at  a 
toy  store  on  Eighth  avenue.) 
"Dr.  Pancoast,  singing  an  ancient  Theban  dirge: 

"  'Isis  and  Nepthys,  beginning  and  end  : 
One  more  victim  to  Amenti  we  send. 
Pay  we  the  fare,  and  let  us  not  tarry. 
Cross  the  Styx  by  the  Roosevelt  street  ferry.'  " 

"Slaves  in  mourning  gowns,  carrying  the  offerings 
and  libations,  to  consist  of  early  potatoes,  asparagus, 
roast  beef,  French  pan-cakes,  bock-beer,  and  New 
Jersey  cider. 

"Treasurer  Newton,  as  chief  of  the  musicians,  play- 
ing the  double  pipe. 

"Other  musicians  performing  on  eight-stringed 
harps,  tom-toms,  etc. 

"Boys  carrying  a  large  lotus  (sunflower). 

"Librarian  Fassit,  who  will  alternate  with  music  by 
repeating  the  lines  beginning: 

"  'Here  Horus  comes,  I  see  the  boat. 

Friends,  stay  your  flowing  tears  ; 
The  soul  of  man  goes  through  a  goat 
In  just  3,000  years.' 

"At  the  temple  the  ceremony  will  be  short  and  sim- 
ple. The  oxen  will  be  left  standing  on  the  sidewalk, 
with  a  boy  near  by  to  prevent  them  goring  the  passers- 
by.  Besides  the  Theurgic  hymn,  printed  above  in 


272  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

full,  the  Coptic  National  anthem  will  be  sung,  trans- 
lated and  adapted  to  the  occasion  as  follows: 

"Sitting  Cynocephalus  up  in  a  tree, 

I  see  you,  and  you  see  me. 

River  full  of  crocodile,  see  his  long  snout ! 

Hoist  up  the  shadoof  and  pull  him  right  out." 

6.    The  Mantle  of  Madame  Blavatsky. 

After  Madame  Blavatsky's  death,  Mrs.  Annie  Be- 
sant  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  Theosophical  So- 
ciety, and  wore  upon  her  finger  a  ring  that  belonged 
to  the  High  Priestess:  a  ring  with  a  green  stone 
flecked  with  veins  of  blood  red,  upon  the  surface  of 
which  was  engraved  the  interlaced  triangles  within  a 
circle,  with  the  Indian  motto,  Sat  (Life),  the  symbol  of 
Theosophy.  It  was  given  to  Madame  Blavatsky  by 
her  Indian  teacher,  says  Mrs.  Besant,  and  is  very  mag- 
netic. The  High  Priestess  on  her  deathbed  pre- 
sented the  mystic  signet  to  her  successor,  and  left  her 
in  addition  many  valuable  books  and  manuscripts. 
The  Theosophical  Society  now  numbers  its  adherents 
by  the  thousands  and  has  its  lodges  scattered  over 
the  United  States,  France,  England  and  India.  At 
the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  it  was  well  repre- 
sented in  the  Great  Parliament  of  Religions,  by  Annie 
Besant,  William  Q.  Judge,  of  the  American  branch, 


HER  SUCCESSORS. 


273 


PIG.  38.     PORTRAIT  OF  MRS.  ANNIB  BESAWT. 


274  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

and   Prof.    Chakravatir,   a   High   Caste   Brahmin  of 
India. 

Mrs.  Besant,  in  an  interview  published  in  the  New 
York  World,  Dec.  11,  1892,  made  the  following  state- 
ment concerning  Madame  Blavatsky's  peculiar 
powers : 

"One  time  she  was  trying  to  explain  to  me  the  con- 
trol of  the  mind  over  certain  currents  in  the  ether 
about  us,  and  to  illustrate  she  made  some  little  taps 
come  on  my  own  head.    They  were  accompanied  by 
the  sensation  one  experiences  on  touching  an  electric 
battery.     I  have  frequently  seen  her  draw  things  to 
her  simply  by  her  will,  without  touching  them.     In- 
deed, she  would  often  check  herself  when  strangers 
were  about.     It  was  natural  for  her,  when  she  wanted 
a  book  that  was  on  the  table,  to  simply  draw  it  to  her 
by  her  power  of  mind,  as  it  would  be  for  you  to  reach 
out  your  hand  to  pick  it  up.     And  so,  as  I  say,  she 
often  had  to  check  herself,  for  she  was  decidedly  ad- 
verse to  making  a  show  of  her  power.     In  fact,  that  is 
contrary  to  the  law  of  the  brotherhood  to  which  she 
belonged.    This  law  forbids  them  to  make  use  of  their 
power  except  as  an  instruction  to  their  pupils  or  as  an 
aid  to  the  spreading  of  the  truth.    An  adept  may 


HER  SUCCESSORS.  275 

never  use  his  knowledge  for  his  personal  advantage. 
He  may  be  starving,  and  despite  his  ability  to  ma- 
terialize banquets  he  may  not  supply  himself  with  a 
crust  of  bread.  This  is  what  is  meant  in  the  Gospel 
when  it  says:  'He  saved  others,  Himself  He  cannot 
save.' 

"One  time  she  had  written  an  article  and  as  usual 
she  gave  me  her  manuscript  to  look  over. 

"Sometimes  she  wrote  very  good  grammatic  English 
and  again  she  wrote  very  slovenly  English.  So  she 
always  had  me  go  over  her  manuscript.  In  reading 
this  particular  one  I  found  a  long  quotation  of  some 
twenty  or  thirty  lines.  When  I  finished  it  I  went  to 
her  and  said:  'Where  in  the  world  did  you  get  that 
quotation?' 

"  'I  got  it  from  an  Indian  newspaper  of  — /  naming 
the  date. 

"  'But/  I  said,  'that  paper  cannot  be  in  this  country 
yet!  How  did  you  get  hold  of  it?' 

"  'Oh,  I  got  it,  dear,'  she  said,  with  a  little  laugh; 
'that's  enough/ 

"Of  course  I  understood  then.  When  the  time 
came  for  the  paper  to  arrive,  I  thought  I  would  verify 
her  quotation,  so  I  asked  her  for  the  name,  the  date 


276  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

of  the  issue  and  the  page  on  which  the  quotation 
would  be  found.  She  told  me,  giving  me,  we  will  say, 
45  as  the  number  of  the  page.  I  went  to  the  agent, 
looked  up  the  paper  and  there  was  no  such  quotation 
on  page  45.  Then  I  remembered  that  things  seen  in 
the  astral  light  are  reversed,  so  I  turned  the  number 
around,  looked  on  page  54  and  there  was  the  quota- 
tion. When  I  went  home  I  told  her  that  it  was  all 
right,  but  that  she  had  given  me  the  wrong  page. 

1  'Very  likely/  she  said.  'Someone  came  in  just  as 
I  was  finishing  it,  and  I  may  have  forgotten  to  reverse 
the  number/ 

"You  see,  anything  seen  in  the  astral  light  is  re- 
versed, as  if  you  saw  it  in  a  mirror,  while  anything 
seen  clairvoyantly  is  straight." 

The  elevation  of  Mrs.  Besant  to  the  High  Priestess- 
ship  of  the  Theosophical  Society  was  in  accord  with 
the  spirit  of  the  age — an  acknowledgment  of  the  Eter- 
nal Feminine;  but  it  did  not  bring  renose  to  the  or- 
ganization. William  Q.  Judge,  of  the  American 
branch,  began  dabbling,  it  is  claimed,  in  Mahatma 
messages  on  his  own  account,  and  charges  were  made 
against  him  by  Mrs.  Besant.  A  bitter  warfare  was 
waged  in  Theosophical  journals,  and  finally  the  Amer- 


HER  SUCCESSORS.  277 

ican  branch  of  the  general  society  seceded,  and  or- 
ganized itself  into  the  American  Theosophical  Society. 
Judge  was  made  life-president  and  held  the  post  until 
his  death,  in  New  York  City,  March  21st,  1896.  His 
body  was  cremated  and  the  ashes  sealed  in  an  urn, 
which  was  deposited  in  the  Society's  rooms,  No.  144 
Madison  avenue. 

Five  weeks  after  the  death  of  Judge,  the  Theosophi- 
cal Society  held  its  annual  conclave  in  New  York  City, 
and  elected  E.  T.  Hargrove  as  the  presiding  genius  of 
esoteric  wisdom  in  the  United  States.  It  was  origin- 
ally intended  to  hold  this  convention  in  Chicago,  but 
the  change  was  made  for  a  peculiar  reason.  As  the 
press  reported  the  circumstance,  "it  was  the  result  of 
a  request  by  a  mysterious  adept  whose  existence  had 
been  unsuspected,  and  who  made  known  his  wish  in 
a  communication  to  the  executive  committee."  It 
seems  that  the  Theosophical  Society  is  composed  of 
two  bodies,  the  exoteric  and  the  esoteric.  The  first 
holds  open  meetings  for  the  discussion  of  ethical  and 
Theosophical  subjects,  and  the  second  meets  privately, 
being  composed  of  a  secret  body  of  adepts,  learned  in 
occultism  and  possessing  remarkable  spiritual  powers. 
The  chief  of  the  secret  order  is  appointed  by  the  Ma- 


278  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

hatmas,  on  account,  it  is  claimed,  of  his  or  her  occult 
development.  Madame  Blavatsky  was  the  High 
Priestess  in  this  inner  temple  during  her  lifetime,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Hierophant  W.  Q.  Judge.  When 
Judge  died,  it  seems  there  was  no  one  thoroughly 
qualified  to  take  his  place  as  the  head  of  the  esoteric 
branch,  until  an  examination  was  made  of  his  papers. 
Then  came  a  surprise.  Judge  had  named  as  his  suc- 
cessor a  certain  obscure  individual  whom  he  claimed 
to  be  a  great  adept,  requesting  that  the  name  be  kept 
a  profound  secret  for  a  specified  time.  In  obedience 
to  this  injunction,  the  Great  Unknown  was  elected  as 
chief  of  the  Inner  Brother-and-Sisterhood.  All  of  this 
made  interesting  copy  for  the  New  York  journalists, 
and  columns  were  printed  about  the  affair.  Another 
surprise  came  when  the  convention  of  exoterics  ("hys- 
terics," as  some  of  the  papers  called  them)  subscribed 
$25,000  for  the  founding  of  an  occult  temple  in  this 
country.  But  the  greatest  surprise  of  all  was  a  Theo- 
sophical  wedding.  The  De  Palm  funeral  fades  away 
into  utter  insignificance  beside  this  mystic  marriage. 
The  contracting  parties  were  Claude  Falls  Wright, 
formerly  secretary  to  Madame  Blavatsky,  and  Mary 
C.  L.  Leonard,  daughter  of  Anna  Byford  Leonard, 


HER  SUCCESSORS.  279 

one  of  the  best  known  Theosophists  in  the  West.  The 
ceremony  was  performed  at  Aryan  Hall,  No.  144  Mad- 
ison avenue,  N.  Y.,  in  the  presence  of  the  occult  body. 
Outsiders  were  not  admitted.  However,  public  cur- 
iosity was  partly  gratified  by  sundry  crumbs  of  in- 
formation thrown  out  by  the  Theosophical  press  bu- 
reau. 

The  young  couple  stood  beneath  a  seven-pointed 
star,  made  of  electric  light  globes,  and  plighted  their 
troth  amid  clouds  of  odoriferous  incense.  Then  fol- 
lowed weird  chantings  and  music  by  an  occult  orches- 
tra composed  of  violins  and  violoncellos.  The  un- 
known adept  presided  over  the  affair,  as  special  envoy 
of  the  Mahatmas.  He  was  enveloped  from  head  to 
foot  in  a  thick  white  veil,  said  the  papers. 

Mr.  Wright  and  his  bride-elect  declared  solemnly 
that  they  remembered  many  of  their  former  incarna- 
tions; their  marriage  had  really  taken  place  in  Egypt, 
5,000  years  ago  in  cne  of  the  mysterious  temples  of 
that  strange  country,  and  the  ceremony  had  been  per- 
formed by  the  priests  of  Isis.  Yes,  they  remembered  it 
all!  It  seemed  but  as  yesterday!  They  recalled  with 
vividness  the  scene:  their  march  up  the  avenue  of 
monoliths;  the  lotus  flowers  strewn  in  their  path  by 


280  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

rosy  children;  the  intoxicating  perfume  of  the  incense, 
burned  in  bronze  braziers  by  shaven-headed  priests; 
the  hieroglyphics,  emblematical  of  life,  death  and  res- 
urrection, painted  upon  the  temple  walls;  the  Hiero- 
phant  in  his  gorgeous  vestments.  Oh,  what  a  dream 
of  Old  World  splendor  and  beauty! 

Before  many  months  had  passed,  the  awful  secret  of 
the  Veiled  Adept's  identity  was  revealed.  The  Great 
Unknown  turned  out  to  be  a  she  instead  of  a  he  adept 
— a  certain  Mrs.  Katherine  Alice  Tingley,  of  New 
York  City.  The  reporters  began  ringing  the  front 
door  bell  of  the  adept's  house  in  the  vain  hope  of  ob- 
taining an  interview,  but  the  newly-hatched  Sphinx 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  their  entreaties.  The  time  was 
not  yet  ripe  for  revelations.  Her  friends,  however, 
rushed  into  print,  and  told  the  most  marvellous  stories 
of  her  mediumship. 

W.  T.  Stead,  the  English  journalist  and  student  of 
psychical  research,  reviewing  the  Theosophical  con- 
vention and  its  outcome,  says  (Borderland,  July,  1896, 
p.  306):  "The  Judgeite  seceders  from  the  Theosophi- 
cal Society  held  their  annual  convention  in  New  York, 
April  26th  to  27th.  They  have  elected  a  young  man, 
Mr.  Ernest  T.  Hargrove,  as  their  president.  A  for- 


HER  SUCCESSORS.  281 

tner  spiritual  medium  and  clairvoyant,  by  name  Kath- 
erine  Alice  Tingley,  who  claims  to  have  been  bosom 
friends  with  H.  P.  B.  1200  years  B.  C,  when  both 
were  incarnated  in  Egypt,  is,  however,  the  grand  Pan- 
jandrum of  the  cause.  Her  first  husband  was  a  de- 
tective, her  second  is  a  clerk  in  the  White  Lead  Com- 
pany's office  in  Brooklyn. 

"According  to  Mr.  Hargrove  she  is — The  new 
adept;  she  was  appointed  by  Mr.  Judge,  and  we  are 
going  to  sustain  her,  as  we  sustained  him,  for  we 
know  her  important  connection  in  Egypt,  Mexico  and 
Europe/  " 

In  the  spring  of  1896,  Mrs.  Tingley,  accompanied 
by  a  number  of  prominent  occultists,  started  on  a  cru- 
sade through  the  world  to  bring  the  truths  of  Theoso- 
phy  to  the  toiling  millions.  The  crusaders  before 
their  departure  were  presented  with  a  purple  silk  ban- 
ner, bearing  the  legend:  "Truth,  Light,  Liberation  for 
Discouraged  Humanity."  The  New  York  Herald 
(Aug.  16, 1896)  says  of  this  crusade: 

"When  Mrs.  Tingley  and  the  other  crusaders  left 
this  country  nothing  had  been  heard  of  the  claim  of 
the  reincarnated  Blavatsky.  Now,  however,  this 
idea  is  boldly  advanced  in  England  by  the  American 


282  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

branch  of  the  society  there,  and  in  America  by  Bur- 
cham  Harding,  the  acting  head  of  the  society  in  this 
country.  When  Mr.  Harding  was  seen  at  the  Theoso- 
phical  headquarters,  he  said: 

"'Yes,  Mme.  Blavatsky  is  reincarnated  in  Mrs. 
Tingley.  She  has  not  only  been  recognized  by  my- 
self and  other  members  of  the  American  branch  of  the 
Theosophical  Society,  who  knew  H.  P.  B.  in  her  for- 
mer life,  but  the  striking  physical  and  facial  resem- 
blance has  also  been  noted  by  members  of  the  English 
branch/ 

"But  this  recognition  by  the  English  members  of 
the  society  does  not  seem  to  be  as  strong  as  Mr.  Hard- 
ing would  seem  to  have  it  understood.  In  fact,  there 
are  a  number  of  members  of  that  branch  who  boldly 
declare  that  Mrs.  Tingley  is  an  impostor.  One  of 
them,  within  the  last  week,  addressing  the  English 
members  on  the  subject,  claimed  that  Mme.  Blavatsky 
had  foreseen  that  such  an  impostor  would  arise.  He 
said: 

"  When  Mme.  Blavatsky  lived  in  her  body  among 
us,  she  declared  to  all  her  disciples  that,  in  her  next 
reincarnation,  she  would  inhabit  the  body  of  an  East- 
ern man,  and  she  warned  them  to  be  on  their  guard 


HER  SUCCESSORS.  283 

against  any  assertion  made  by  mediums  or  others  that 
they  were  controlled  by  her.  Whatever  H.  P.  B. 
lacked,  she  never  wanted  emphasis,  and  no  one  who 
knew  anything  of  the  founder  of  the  Theosophical 
Society  was  left  in  any  doubt  as  to  her  views  upon  this 
question.  She  declared  that  if  any  persons,  after  her 
death,  should  claim  that  she  was  speaking  through 
them,  her  friends  might  be  quite  sure  that  it  was  a  lie. 
Imagine,  then,  the  feelings  of  H.  P.  B/s  disciples  on 
being  presented  with  an  American  clairvoyant  me- 
dium, in  the  shape  of  Mrs.  Tingley,  who  is  reported 
to  claim  that  H.  P.  B.  is  reincarnated  in  her/ 

"The  American  branch  of  the  society  is  not  at  all 
disturbed  by  this  charge  of  fraud  by  the  English 
branch.  In  connection  with  it  Mr.  Harding  says: 

"  'It  is  true  that  the  American  branch  of  the  Theo- 
sophical Society  has  seceded  from  the  English  branch, 
but  as  Mme.  Blavatsky,  the  founder,  was  in  reality  an 
American,  it  can  be  understood  why  we  consider  our- 
selves the  parent  society.' 

"Of  the  one  letter  which  Mrs.  Tingley  has  sent  to 
America  since  the  arrival  of  the  crusaders,  the  Eng- 
lish Theosophists  are  a  unit  in  the  expression  of  opin- 
ion that  it  illustrated,  as  did  her  speech  in  Queen's 


284  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

Hall,  merely  'unmeaning  platitudes  and  prophecies/ 
But  the  American  members  are  quite  as  loud  in  their 
expressions  that  the  English  members  are  trying  to 
win  the  sympathies  of  the  public,  and  that  the  words 
are  really  understood  by  the  initiate. 

"The  letter  reads:  'In  thanking  you  for  the  many 
kind  letters  addressed  to  me  as  Katherine  Tingley,  as 
well  as  by  other  names  that  would  not  be  understood 
by  the  general  public,  I  should  like  to  say  a  few  words 
as  to  the  future  and  its  possibilities.  Many  of  you  are 
destined  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  work  that  the 
future  will  make  manifest,  and  it  is  well  to  press  on- 
ward with  a  clear  knowledge  of  the  path  to  be  trodden 
and  with  a  clear  vision  of  the  goal  to  be  reached. 

"  The  path  to  be  trodden  is  both  exterior  and  inter- 
ior, and  in  order  to  reach  the  goal  it  is  necessary  to 
tread  these  paths  with  strength,  courage,  faith  and  the 
essence  of  them  all,  which  is  wisdom. 

"  'For  these  two  paths,  which  fundamentally  are 
one,  like  every  duality  in  nature,  are  winding  paths, 
and  now  lead  through  sunlight,  then  through  deepest 
shade.  During  the  last  few  years  the  large  majority 
of  students  have  been  rounding  a  curve  in  the  paths 
of  both  inner  and  outer  work,  and  this  wearied  many. 


HER  SUCCESSORS.  285 

But  those  who  persevered  and  faltered  not  will  soon 
reap  their  reward. 

"  The  present  is  pregnant  with  the  promise  of  the 
near  future,  and  that  future  is  brighter  than  could  be 


FIG.  39.     PORTRAIT  OF  MRS.  TINGLEY. 

[Reproduced  by  courtesy  of  the  New  York  Herald^ 

believed  by  those  who  have  so  recently  been  immersed 
in  the  shadows  that  are  inevitable  in  cyclic  progress. 
Can  words  describe  it?  I  think  not.  But  if  you  will 


286  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

think  of  the  past  twenty  years  of  ploughing  and  sow- 
ing and  will  keep  in  your  mind  the  tremendous 
force  that  has  been  scattered  broadcast  throughout 
the  world,  you  must  surely  see  that  the  hour  for  reap- 
ing is  near  at  hand,  if  it  has  not  already  come." 

The  invasion  of  English  territory  by  the  American 
crusaders  was  resented  by  the  British  Theosophists. 
The  advocates  of  universal  brotherhood  waged  bitter 
warfare  against  each  other  in  the  newspapers  and 
periodicals.  It  gradually  resolved  itself  into  a  strug- 
gle for  supremacy  between  the  two  rival  claimants  for 
the  mantle  of  Madame  Blavatsky,  Mrs.  Annie  Besant 
and  Mrs.  Tingley.  Each  Pythoness  ascended  her  sa- 
cred tripod  and  hysterically  denounced  the  other  as  an 
usurper,  and  false  prophetess.  Annie  Besant  sought 
to  disprove  the  idea  of  Madame  Blavatsky  having 
re-incarnated  herself  in  the  body  of  Mrs.  Tingley.  She 
claimed  that  the  late  High  Priestess  had  taken  up  her 
earthly  pilgrimage  again  in  the  person  of  a  little  Hindoo 
boy,  who  lived  somewhere  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges. 
The  puzzling  problem  was  this:  If  Mrs.  Tingley  was 
Mme.  Blavatsky,  where  was  Mrs.  Tingley?  Oedipus 
would  have  gone  mad  trying  to  solve  this  Sphinx 
riddle. 


THE  THEOSOPHICAL  TEMPLE.  287 

The  crusade  finished,  Mrs.  Tingley,  with  her  purple 
banner  returned  to  New  York,  where  she  was  royally 
welcomed  by  her  followers.  In  the  wake  of  the  Amer- 
ican adept  came  the  irrepressible  Annie  Besant,  ac- 
companied by  a  sister  Theosophist,  the  Countess  Con- 
stance Wachmeister.  Mrs.  Besant,  garbed  in  a  white 
linen  robe  of  Hindoo  pattern,  lectured  on  occult  sub- 
jects to  crowded  houses  in  the  principal  cities  of  the 
East  and  West.  In  the  numerous  interviews  accord- 
ed her  by  the  press,  she  ridiculed  the  Blavatsky- 
Tingley  re-incarnation  theory.  By  kind  permission 
of  the  New  York  Herald,  I  reproduce  a  portrait  of 
Mrs.  Tingley.  The  reader  will  find  it  interesting  to 
compare  this  sketch  with  the  photograph  of  Madame 
Blavatsky  given  in  this  book.  He  will  notice  at 
once  how  much  the  two  occulists  do  resemble  each 
other;  both  are  grossly  fat,  puffy  of  face,  with  heavy- 
lidded  eyes  and  rather  thick  lips. 

7.    The  Theosophical  Temple. 

If  all  the  dreams  of  the  Theosophical  Society  are 
fulfilled  we  shall  see,  at  no  distant  date,  in  the  state  of 
California,  a  sombre  and  mysterious  building,  fash- 
ioned after  an  Egyptian  temple,  its  pillars  covered 
with  hieroglyphic  symbols,  and  its  ponderous  pylons 


288  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

flanking  the  gloomy  entrance.  Twin  obelisks  will 
stand  guard  at  the  gateway  and  huge  bronze  sphinxes 
stare  the  tourist  out  of  countenance.  The  Theosophi- 
cal  temple  will  be  constructed  "upon  certain  myster- 
ious principles,  and  the  numbers  7  and  13  will  play  a 
prominent  part  in  connection  with  the  dimensions  of 
the  rooms  and  the  steps  of  the  stairways."  The  Hier- 
ophants  of  occultism  will  assemble  here,  weird  initia- 
tions like  those  described  in  Moore's  "Epicurean"  will 
take  place,  and  the  doctrines  of  Hindoo  pantheism  will 
be  expounded  to  the  Faithful.  The  revival  of  the 
Egyptian  mysteries  seems  to  be  one  of  the  objects 
-aimed  at  in  the  establishment  of  this  mystical  college. 
Just  what  the  Egyptian  Mysteries  were  is  a  mooted 
question  among  Egyptologists.  But  this  does  not 
bother  the  modern  adept. 

Mr.  Bucham  Harding,  the  leading  exponent  of 
Theosophy  mentioned  above,  says  that  within  the 
temple  the  neophyte  will  be  brought  face  to  face  with 
his  own  soul.  "By  what  means  cannot  be  revealed; 
but  I  may  say  that  the  object  of  initiation  will  be  to 
raise  the  consciousness  of  the  pupil  to  a  plane  where 
he  will  see  and  know  his  own  divine  soul  and  con- 
sciously communicate  with  it.  Once  gained,  this 


THE  THEOSOPHICAL  TEMPLE.  289 

power  is  never  lost.  From  this  it  can  be  seen  that  oc- 
cultism is  not  so  unreal  as  many  think,  and  that  the 
existence  of  soul  is  susceptible  of  actual  demonstra- 
tion. No  one  will  be  received  into  the  mysteries  until, 
by  means  of  a  long  and  severe  probation,  he  has 
proved  nobility  of  character.  Only  persons  having 
Theosophical  training  will  be  eligible,  but  as  any  be- 
liever in  brotherhood  may  become  a  Theosophist,  all 
earnest  truthseekers  will  have  an  opportunity  of  ad- 
mission. 

'The  probation  will  be  sufficiently  severe  to  deter 
persons  seeking  to  gratify  curiosity  from  trying  to 
enter.  No  trifler  could  stand  the  test.  There  will  be 
a  number  of  degrees.  Extremely  few  will  be  able  to 
enter  the  highest,  as  eligibility  to  it  requires  eradica- 
tion of  every  human  fault  and  weakness.  Those 
strong  enough  to  pass  through  this  become  adepts." 

The  Masonic  Fraternity,  with  its  33d  degree  and 
its  elaborate  initiations,  will  have  to  look  to  its  laurels, 
as  soon  as  the  Theosophical  College  of  Mystery  is  in 
good  running  order.  Everyone  loves  mysteries,  espe- 
cially when  they  are  of  the  Egyptian  kind.  Caglios- 
tro,  the  High  Priest  of  Humbug,  knew  this  when  he 
evolved  the  Egyptian  Rite  of  Masonry,  in  the  eight- 


290  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

eenth  century.  Speaking  of  Freemasonry,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  note  the  fact,  as  stated  by  Colonel  Olcott  in 
"Old  Diary  Leaves,"  that  Madame  Blavatsky  and  her 
coadjutors  once  seriously  debated  the  question  as  to 
the  advisability  of  engrafting  the  Theosophical  So- 
ciety on  the  Masonic  fraternity,  as  a  sort  of  higher  de- 
gree,— Masonry  representing  the  lesser  mysteries, 
modern  Theosophy  the  greater  mysteries.  But  little 
encouragement  was  given  to  the  Priestess  of  Isis  by 
eminent  Freemasons,  for  Masonry  has  always  been  the 
advocate  of  theistic  doctrines,  and  opposed  to  the  pan- 
theistic cult.  At  another  time,  the  leaders  of  Theoso- 
phy talked  of  imitating  Masonry  by  having  degrees, 
an  elaborate  ritual,  etc.;  also  pass  words,  signs  and 
grips,  in  order  that  "one  occult  brother  might  know 
another  in  the  darkness  as  well  as  in  the  astral  light." 
This,  however,  was  abandoned.  The  founding  of  the 
Temple  of  Magic  and  Mystery  in  this  country,  with 
ceremonies  of  initiation,  etc.,  seems  to  me  to  be  a 
palingenesis  of  Mme.  Blavatsky's  ideas  on  the  subject 
of  occult  Masonry. 

8.    Conclusions. 

The  temple  of  modern  Theosophy,  the  foundation  of 
which  was  laid  by  Madame  Blavatsky,  rests  upon  the 


CONCLUSIONS.  291 

truth  of  the  Mahatma  stories.  Disbelieve  these,  and 
the  entire  structure  falls  to  the  ground  like  a  house  of 
cards.  After  the  numerous  exposures,  recorded  in  the 
preceding  chapters,  it  is  difficult  to  place  any  reliance 
in  the  accounts  of  Mahatmic  miracles.  There  may,  or 
may  not,  be  sages  in  the  East,  acquainted  with  spirit- 
ual laws  of  being,  but  that  these  masters,  or  adepts, 
used  Madame  Blavatsky  as  a  medium  to  announce 
certain  esoteric  doctrines  to  the  Western  world,  is  ex- 
ceedingly dubious. 

The  first  work  of  any  literary  pretensions  to  call 
attention  to  Theosophy  was  Sinnett's  "Esoteric  Bud- 
dhism." Of  that  production,  William  Emmette  Cole- 
man  says: 

"  'Esoteric  Buddhism/  by  A.  P.  Sinnett,  was  based 
upon  statements  contained  in  letters  received  by  Mr. 
Sinnett  and  Mr.  A.  O.  Hume,  through  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky, purporting  to  be  written  by  the  Mahatmas 
Koot  Hoomi  and  Morya — principally  the  former.  Mr. 
Richard  Hodgson  has  kindly  lent  me  a  considerable 
number  of  the  original  letters  of  the  Mahatmas  that 
leading  to  the  production  of  'Esoteric  Buddhism.'  I  find 
in  them  overwhelming  evidence  that  all  of  them  were 
written  by  Madame  Blavatsky.  In  these  letters  are  a 


292  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

number  of  extracts  from  Buddhist  Books,  alleged  to 
be  translations  from  the  originals  by  the  Mahatmic 
writers  themselves.  These  letters  claim  for  the  adepts 
a  knowledge  of  Sanskrit,  Thibetan,  Pali  and  Chinese. 
I  have  traced  to  its  source  each  quotation  from  the 
Buddhist  Scriptures  in  the  letters,  and  they  were  all 
copied  from  current  English  translations,  including 
even  the  notes  and  explanations  of  the  English  trans- 
lators. They  were  principally  copied  from  Beat's  'Ca- 
tena of  Buddhist  Scriptures  from  the  Chinese.'  In 
other  places  where  the  'adept'  is  using  his  own  lan- 
guage in  explanation  of  Buddhistic  terms  and  ideas, 
I  find  that  his  presumed  original  language  was  copied 
nearly  word  for  word  from  Rhys  Davids'  'Buddhism,' 
and  other  books.  I  have  traced  every  Buddhistic  idea 
in  these  letters  and  in  'Esoteric  Buddhism,'  and  every 
Buddhistic  term,  such  as  Devachan,  Avitchi,  etc.,  to 
the  books  whence  Helena  Petrovna  Blavatsky  derived 
them.  Although  said  to  be  proficient  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  Thibetan  and  Sanskrit  the  words  and  terms  in 
these  languages  in  the  letters  of  the  adepts  were  nearly 
all  used  in  a  ludicrously  erroneous  and  absurd  manner. 
The  writer  of  those  letters  was  an  ignoramus  in  San- 
skrit and  Thibetan ;  and  the  mistakes  and  blunders  in 


CONCLUSIONS.  293 

them,  in  these  languages,  are  in  exact  accordance  with 
the  known  ignorance  of  Madame  Blavatsky  concern- 
ing these  languages.  'Esoteric  Buddhism/  like  all  of 
Madame  Blavatsky's  works,  was  based  upon  whole- 
sale plagiarism  and  ignorance." 

Madame  Blavatsky  never  succeeded  in  penetrating 
into  Thibet,  in  whose  sacred  "lamaseries"  and  temples 


FIG.  40.     MADAME  BLAVATSKY'9  AUTOGRAPH. 

dwell  the  wonderful  Mahatmas  of  modern  Theosophy, 
but  William  Woodville  Rockhill,  the  American  travel- 
ler and  Oriental  scholar,  did,  and  we  have  a  record  of 
his  adventures  in  "The  Land  of  the  Laas,"  published 
in  1891.  While  at  Serkok,  he  visited  a  famous  mon- 
astery inhabited  by  700  lamas.  He  says  (page  102): 


294  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

'They  asked  endless  questions  concerning  the  state  of 
Buddhism  in  foreign  lands.  They  were  astonished 
that  it  no  longer  existed  in  India,  and  that  the  church 
of  Ceylon  was  so  like  the  ancient  Buddhist  one. 
When  told  of  our  esoteric  Buddhists,  the  Mahatmas, 
and  of  the  wonderful  doctrines  they  claimed  to  have 
obtained  from  Thibet,  they  were  immensely  amused. 
They  declared  that  though  in  ancient  times  there  were, 
doubtless,  saints  and  sages  who  could  perform  some  of 
the  miracles  now  claimed  by  the  Esoterists,  none  were 
living  at  the  present  day;  and  they  looked  upon  this 
new  school  as  rankly  heretical,  and  as  something  ap- 
proaching an  imposition  on  our  credulity." 

"Isis  Unveiled/'  and  the  "Secret  Doctrine,"  by  Ma- 
dame Blavatsky,  are  supposed  to  contain  the  completest 
exposition  of  Theosophy,  or  the  inner  spiritual  meaning 
of  the  great  religious  cults  of  the  world,  but,  as  we  have 
seen,  they  are  full  of  plagiarisms  and  garbled  state- 
ments, to  say  nothing  of  "spurious  quotations  from 
Buddhist  sacred  books,  manufactured  by  the  writer  to 
embody  her  own  peculiar  views,  under  the  fictitious 
guise  of  genuine  Buddhism."  This  last  quotation 
from  Coleman  strikes  the  keynote  of  the  whole  sub- 
ject. Esoteric  Buddhism  is  a  product  of  Occidental 


CONCLUSIONS.  295 

manufacture,  a  figment  of  Madame  Blavatsky's  ro- 
mantic imagination,  and  by  no  means  represents  the 
truth  of  Oriental  philosophy. 

As  Max  Mueller,  one  of  the  greatest  living  Oriental 
scholars,  has  repeatedly  stated,  any  attempt  to  read 
into  Oriental  thought  our  Western  science  and  phil- 
osophy or  to  reconcile  them,  is  futile  to  a  degree;  the 
two  schools  are  as  opposite  to  each  other,  as  the  nega- 
tive and  positive  poles  of  a  magnet,  Orientalism  repre- 
senting the  former,  Occidentalism,  the  latter.  Oriental 
philosophy  with  its  Indeterminate  Being  (or  pure 
nothing  as  the  Absolute)  ends  in  the  utter  negation  of 
everything  and  affords  no  clue  to  the  secret  of  the  Uni- 
verse. If  to  believe  that  all  is  maya,  (illusion),  and  that 
to  be  one  with  Brahma  (absorbed  like  the  rain  drop  in 
the  ocean)  constitutes  the  summum  bonum  of  thinking, 
then  there  is  no  explanation  of,  or  use  for,  evolution  or 
progress  of  any  kind.  The  effect  of  Hindoo  phil- 
osophy has  been  stagnation,  indifferentism,  and,  as  a 
result,  the  Hindoo  has  no  recorded  history,  no  science, 
no  art  worthy  the  name.  Compared  to  it  see  what 
Greek  philosophy  has  done:  it  has  transformed  the 
Western  world:  Starting  with  Self-Determined  Being, 
reason,  self-activity,  at  the  heart  of  the  Universe,  and 


296  MADAME  BLAVATSKY. 

the  creation  of  individual  souls  by  a  process  of  evolu- 
tion in  time  and  space,  and  the  unfolding  of  a  splendid 
civilization  are  logical  consequences.  In  the  East,  it 
is  the  destruction  of  self-hood;  in  the  West  the  de- 
struction of  selfishness,  and  the  preservation  of  self- 
hood. 

Many  noted  Theosophists  claim  that  modern  Theo- 
sophy  is  not  a  religious  cult,  but  simply  an  exposition 
of  the  esoteric,  or  inner  spiritual  meaning  of  the  great 
religious  teachers  of  the  world.  Let  me  quote  what 
Solovyoff  says  on  this  point: 

"The  Theosophical  Society  shockingly  deceived 
those  who  joined  it  as  members,  in  reliance  on  the  regula- 
tions. It  gradually  grew  evident  that  it  was  no  uni- 
versal scientific  brotherhood,  to  which  the  followers  of 
all  religions  might  with  a  clear  conscience  belong,  but 
a  group  of  persons  who  had  begun  to  preach  in  their 
organ,  The  Theosophist,  and  in  their  other  publications, 
a  mixed  religious  doctrine.  Finally,  in  the  last  years 
of  Madame  Blavatsky's  life,  even  this  doctrine  gave 
place  to  a  direct  and  open  propaganda  of  the  most  or- 
thodox exoteric  Buddhism,  under  the  motto  of  'Our  Lord 
Buddha/  combined  with  incessant  attacks  on  Chris- 
tianity. *  *  *  Now,  in  1893,  as  the  direct  effect 


CONCLUSIONS.  297 

of  this  cause,  we  see  an  entire  religious  movement,  we 
see  a  prosperous  and  growing  plantation  of  Buddhism 
in  Western  Europe." 

As  a  last  word,  let  me  add  that  if,  in  my  opinion, 
modern  Theosophy  has  no  right  to  the  high  place  it 
claims  in  the  world  of  thought,  it  has  performed  its 
share  in  the  noble  fight  against  the  crass  materialism 
of  our  day,  and,  freed  from  the  frauds  that  have  too 
long  darkened  its  poetical  aspects,  it  may  yet  help 
to  diffuse  through  the  world  the  pure  light  of  brotherly 
love  and  spiritual  development. 


LIST    OF 

Works  Consulted  in  the  Preparation  of  this  Volume 


AKSAKOFF,   ALEXANDER   N.      Animism  and  Spirit- 

ism  ;  an  attempt  at  a  critical  investigation  of  mediumistic 
phenomena,  with  special  reference  to  the  hypotheses  of 
hallucination  and  of  the  unconscious  ;  an  answer  to  Dr.  E. 
von  Hartmann's  work,  "Der  Spiritismus."  2  vols.  Leip- 
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AZAM,  DR.  Hypnotisms  et  Alterations  de  la  Per- 
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BINBT,  A..  AND  FERE,  C.  Animal  Magnetism.  Trans- 
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BLAVATSKY,  MADAMB  HELENB  PBTROVNA  HAHN- 
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digested  quotations  from  writers  living  and  dead,  with 
running  remarks  by  Mme.  Blavatsky.  A  hodge-podge  of 
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The  Secret  Doctrine :    The   Synthesis  of    science, 

religion,  and  philosophy.  2  vols.  New  York,  1888.  8vo. 
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298 


CROOKES,  WILLIAM.  Researches  in  the  Phenom- 
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Psychic  Force  and  Modern  Spiritualism.  London, 

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DESSOIR,  MAX.  The  Psychology  of  Legerdemain. 
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GARRETT,  EDMUND.  Isis  Very  Much  Unveiled :  Being 
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299 


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Supernatural.  Bristol,  Eng.,  1891.  8vo. 

WILLMANN,  CARL.  Moderne  Wunder.  Leipsic,  1892. 
8vo.  (Contains  interesting  accounts  of  Dr.  Slade's  Berlin 
and  Leipsic  experiences.  It  is  written  by  a  professional 
conjurer.  Anti-spiritualistic.) 

WOODBURY,  WALTER  E.  Photographic  Amusements. 
New  York,  1896.  8vo.  (Contains  some  interesting  accounts 
of  so-called  spirit  photography.) 

302 


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